The Walk

The Walk

I walked along the beach one day

And saw a man kneeling in the sand

He gazed intently out to sea

he wore a uniform of green

one could tell he was not here

but thinking of another place

you could see it on his face

I stopped to offer a word of thanks

for serving us on foreign sands

He gave a nod that he had heard

but did not divert his gaze

from looking out upon the sea

as I stood beside the man

a burst of sunlight laid upon a shiny object in his hand

I stared a moment at what lay there

Feeling numb and out of place

I turned away, to retreat

The man began to speak

He displayed the object from his hand

A pair of metal discs on a long chain

These dog tags he began, belonged to my friend

His name was Sam

He was my friend and still is now,

I made a promise to him once

that I would come here to this place and leave these here

out in the sand and wait for the sea to take them back

I listened to the words he said a

nd bowed my head in silent prayer

for the man who held the tags

and the man who was not there

I knew it was not easy for the man to do this task

A determined hand he laid the tags upon the sand

He stood up tall and offered a salute as

A wave came upon the shore pulling out their just reward

not wishing to intrude I turned away once more

no! please stay if you don't mind, I could use some company

it's hard for me to do this thing

but I made a promise don't you see

to my friend, his name was Sam.

I stood there till the sun went down

with this soldier as he spoke about his life

and his friend whose name was Sam