My Little Soldier Boy

My Little Soldier Boy

There goes my little soldier boy
Marching outside to play
With plastic toy weapons in his hands
He steals my heart away

He’s got to go to war, he says
To fight the enemy
I watch him as he plays his game
Camouflaged behind a tree

There goes my little soldier boy
To school – it’s his first day
I cry as I watch the school bus leave
They’ve taken my baby away

The years slip by us so swiftly
Children grow up so fast
They put aside their little toy guns
And become graduates at last

Now there goes my grown-up son
A little boy no more
With soldier’s weapons in his hands
Headed for a distant shore

He’s got to go to war, he says
To fight the enemy
I cry as I watch him board the plane
He steals my heart away

This poem was featured on pathetic.org as Poem of the Day on December 21, 2005. I was inspired to write it while looking at a photograph of my son, Justin, taken when he was a little boy. He was playing “soldier,” wearing a “Special Forces” beret, and peeking out from behind a potted palm tree in our living room. Today, Justin is a Specialist with the 1st Calvary Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

“An American Reverie”

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My Little Soldier Boy Then

This picture was taken on October 22, 2006 at Bangor International Airport by the Freeport Flag Ladies.
Please take time to visit their wonderful website!

My Soldier Today

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I am very proud of Justin, who spent 15 months in Iraq, from October 2006 to January 2008. I have added a page of some photos taken during his deployment.

To view them, click here.