Take Back Your Letter by Amanda Reads

Written by Ronald Allen Bell~

From the book, Poems for the Ponder~

 

Lyrics:

He's really gone.
Your pride and joy that stood six-foot one, and one half of another. 
Survived by his sweet mom, and little sis, and newborn brother.
Football captain with good grades, his science teacher called him, "Smarties". 
The dimples on his chin and calm voice, turn rumbles into parties.
Opened doors for the girls, the pride he'd take in it drove them nuts.
But he stayed ever true to the one blue eyed dream, that he always said he loved. 

This box that holds his life's collections,
you would take out when mad at him,
find peace in its recollections.
Baby shoes and blue ribbons,
seemed he always got first place,
And his third-grade yearbook signed by only two,
due to the braces on his face. 
A poem he wrote called, "Mighty Mom" for a fifth-grade Mother's Day gift,
which was wrapped in coupons he'd learn to regret, 
found hiding under the trash can lid. 
A baseball card he got from Candlestick Park,
on our trip down to the Bay.
The card was Will Clark, he screamed and cried, 
I swiped my card; proved worth it, 
Will signed it in the parking lot that day.

No, he isn't coming home again.

Instead of being elated, overcome with unbearable anticipation, as anxiously I waited for my Rangers homecoming celebration, 

I get a three-beat knock and a two-times silent civilian salute with a dispatch which reads, "He proudly served his nation."

Give me back my son and you can keep the General's letter.
I know a few ornery sons of guns more deserved of being gone forever
Give me just the chance to say a last goodbye to the son I had.
You can keep your twenty-one guns, and your wholly folded flag.