Editor's Note: The following poem is reprinted by permission from the author and appears in David Kotzebue's book, Your Grandfather's Sabre - A Century of Sacrifice, published in 2009 by Books To Believe In, 250 pages, softbound. (Available on Amazon.com - click here)

What About Them?
(A SONG FOR KITTY)

A poem by David Kotzebue
 
What about them, what about them?
They give and give, then give again.
They prop us up, they give us prayers;
Sometimes I wonder if anyone cares.
 
We return, missing limbs and eyes,
Rehab begins, amid screams & sighs.
Long weary days, long weary nights,
To patch us up, who fought the fight.
 
We trot them off from base to base,
They have no home, no settled place,
They love us who are sent in to fight,
Who hears their tears cried in the night?
 
A former spouse gave her best years,
She fought the fight, she cried the tears.
For 20 years, she did her bit;
Less than that, & she don’t get shit.

Back at home they watch and wait,
Sometimes we return to rehabilitate.
Sometimes their waiting is in vain,
When we’re shipped home on a casket plane.
 
Widows get a pension, it’s true,
Because they supported the red, white and blue.
Less than poverty level Uncle Sam gives;
But we died so they might live.

We do a little, but we can do more,
For the families of those who go to war.
They should not face certain poverty,
They gave us their lives for liberty.
 
What about them, what about them?
They give and give, then give again.
They prop us up, they give us prayers;
Sometimes I wonder if anyone cares.