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This poem and others are available in my book, Nothing Works: Meditations on Aikido, Buddhism, the Tao, Zen, and other inconsequential things.... Available thru Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites....Sorry for the plug, but I gottta fund my retirement... Try this link: www.nothing-works.com
Shit and bravado
How long does that last
When there is nothing left?
Still, it is something
Perhaps more politely called Esprit de corps
Pride, fellowship, and common loyalty
And perhaps devotion and love
To comrades-in-arms
To our brothers and sisters
To a cause
That is something to be feared
By would-be conquerors
A truth that lies between the lines
Of all the military training manuals
At Thermopylae, the Alamo,
At Camarón, at Dien Bien Phu,
Shiroyama, Pasir Panjang
Rorke's Drift, Bastogne
Mars Colony, Adrian's Star
What sustained such warriors
Cornered, trapped, outnumbered?
Except being full of
"Shit and bravado"
Backed up by bombs, bullets,
Blades, blood, and guts
11-11-2012 01:39 PM 
