I’ve seen things no man should see
and heard the screams that haunted me.
I’ve tasted death with a kiss of life
and touched the pulse of the afterlife.
I’ve smelled the stench of the slipped away
and cried when death has claimed its prey.
I’ve served in ways I can’t describe
for fear of rambling in a diatribe.
But I survived it all and lived to tell
what life is like in earthly hell.
And though my dreams still show the strain,
I’d live it all, each day of pain.
I’d fight the evil, the sick, depraved
to know, just once, a life I saved.