Rhea Noel MacDonald

SHAME ON YOU

Look at me.
What do you see?
Am I whole or part?
I’m not quite the man I was,
when this war got its start.

Wounded, a leg now gone,
part of my arm is too.
Do you see the man inside,
to whom you said, “I do”?

Or do you see, just part of me:
the part that can no longer hold,
you to me, and me to you,
as in times of old?

I can still feel: I cry so much,
for who I used to be.
I look into your eyes of tears:
you no longer, see Me.

I need your love, not pity now,
to make me truly whole.
So I can give to you the man
that the Service stole.

We didn’t ask to be hit that day,
a bomb from out of the sky.
It surprised us all, and of that day,
I’m lucky to be alive.

I lost so many men to hate,
now I must lose you…
for your hate for what they did to me,
has driven It’s wedge, too.

You don’t touch me like you used to,
a newlywed with love.
Instead it’s a touch of anger,
in Our Lord, above.

It burns me to feel your hand, upon my skin
Knowing that you hate that I,
can never walk again.
Or touch you like I used to, or dance or play around,
So take that hate for this un-whole man,
and put me in the ground.