Soldier's Regrets

One day back in September
All those many days ago,
Though now hard to remember,
I wrote you an “I miss you” note.

I told of how I loved you
How close you were to my heart
I said some things about us two;
How much I missed you when we’re apart.

“I love your laugh, your smile, you eyes,
And how happy you make me feel.”
That sentence of how you were my prize
Makes the sadness now all the more real.

This letter held all my emotion
My signature a tear at the end;
Then I quieted my head of all the commotion
As I got the letter ready to send.

I marked your address, signed my name
Stuck a stamp and sealed the letter
Then took a box in my guilty shame
and buried the note; “all for the better”

I buried the box forever from here
With the “I miss you” note inside.
I couldn’t send it, wouldn’t for fear
You would see—in my weakness—I cried.

Now I see you looking at me
With so many tears on your face
My beautiful, wonderful, my bride-to-be
A future once bright seems erased.

My dear, I am with you in spirit,
Though in this casket my body lies
My heartsong, I hope you can hear it
I sing it when I miss your eyes.

The notes still carry, as love often does
Even through a deafening roar;
Through bombshells, bullets, and all that was,
My heartsong rings out all the more.

In this casket my body will stay
My soul to heaven, my spirit with you
You will feel me there, I’m never away
As I whisper “I miss you too.”

You wrote me letters, telling me all,
Saying, “I love and I miss you.”
And though the war was like a wall,
I could still feel your love shining through.

You told me always to never forget,
How dearly cherished I was to you
So now that I’m gone, my biggest regret
is that my “I miss you” note didn’t come too.

All my emotion on one single page
A page you’ll never even see;
And since I am gone from one single bomb blaze
You’ll never know all you mean to me.

You were my everything
My hope through the war
But you’ll never know anything
About how I miss you more.

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