One of Our Own

I wrote this poem in 2004 on the death of the only solider that I knew personally to die in the  Iraq war.  I worked with Sgt. Collier on night shift here at the plant.  I am reposting in memory of Staff Sgt. David Wyatt of Russellville, remembered by our Erin.

 

                           One of Our Own

 

At first the news is distant and vague, like many others…

-          Another soldier gone

-          Dead in a far off land

But to us, this one is different,

                A familiar face on the news

-          He is a Local Boy

-          One of Our Own…

 

Another citizen soldier sent off long ago, with best wishes and Prayers...

-          to that distant place

-          never ever to return

But to us, this one is different from the others

                Not a stranger from another town

-          He is a Local Boy

-          One of Our Own…

 

But in our hearts we know…

To Some One, Some Place

Each and Every One

-          Is a Local Boy

-          One of Our Own…

 

In memory of our own, Sgt. Russell L. Collier

killed in Taji, Iraq October 3, 2004.

 

 

October 5, 2004

Fleta Aday

 

…

Catching UP

Having not posted all week, I am even slower than Helen.

 

We got back from vacation in good order Monday night around 10.  We stopped in Siloam and had KFC with the kids daddy.  It had been a month since he had seen them, being in school for two weeks in LR prior to our vacation.  Next vacation we are eating more at KFC and less at hamburger joints.  I do not care if I never have another fast burger.

 

It has been really hot. I walked 4 miles to the red barn on Wed, Thur and Friday starting about 6:30 in the evening.  Four miles is the most I can do in the hot evening, and at that I cannot make the mile in 20 minutes I was before July.  Saturday and Sunday, I went at 6 or so in the morning and got in 6 miles each day.

 

Helen’s white bloom that she says smells like lilac is poison sumac.  I thought that was what it was, but did not remember the white bloom.  After the white bloom dries, the blooms turn red / brown as in the other undoubtedly more familiar photo.

 

We went yesterday and bought lumber for George to start on our goat shed.  I had in mind a 10X20 or so slanted roof building.  George is planning a 20X40  gable roofed building.  He is building it so that is what we are going with, for now at least.  We will have a goat mansion, if he gets it completed.

 

I went back to work Thursday.  It has not been as bad as I thought it might be with 2 weeks of work piled up, probably because I just sit down beside the piles and do something that interests me.

…

The End