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The Injured Brain
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How fragile the brain?
The injured brain?
The American soldier by name
Whom has stood the test of all times
without fame
Risking his own life for ours
Would you do the same?
Would you have his back?
He dies for us, that’s a sure
For sure:
His only guarantee are the shores
His rest among the shores for sure
He has performed all the tours for sure
His injuries gone unnoticed
Still battling all for sure
Their complaints gone never noticed
Signs of brain injuries without one
It’s a hard task for a proven soldier
Whom has repeatedly died his hurts
without being heard
Required to prove but, still alive
Life proves you’re a hero if you died saving one’s
They’re all indeed hero’s
With a social security ID wrapped
around their neck
Their Purple Heart and blood
The Army will not see it
With symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI):
Vertigo, headaches, anxiety, fatigue
Stress, sleep apnea, confusion, vomiting, memory loss, and instability and so on …
All in all
Unable to hold relationship
Odd jobs in the tries
Always dismissed and promised of good byes
These are the future
Of an Army soldier
Who had the task
Known as a Firing Mortar
He joined the Army
A perfect score
In his military aptitude test
Now, struggle to read and convince others
Who now he is
It is not who he should be
To try to convince others
Who he is now, he not really him but, he is
Is a classic story of a true hero?
Whom has sacrificed his own life
Returns home to his wife
Now, she doesn’t know him
It’s a struggle of all of the battles
Where confusion becomes reality
Here, in this real world
This hero can’t seek proof
As his own military command
Doesn’t buy his symptoms
As all dismissed
His price are heaven compared to his burdens
His left all alone
His wife leaves him
His now, becomes
Glue to his basement
Nowhere else to go, trying too hard to survive
Aiming for a college degree
Unable to remember simple tasks
He now, must contempt to giving up
By definition, hero’s never gives up
This one has been driven not by will
But, by his mental brain injury to do just that
Even as he struggled, he not will to give up
In his heroic brain
He’s been bread not to give up
He started a Facebook Page
To relieve others like him
In his platoon
Also, dozens like him
His symptoms are more than in his head
The VA, tells him “Go home, you’ll improve!”
This solider knows better
They’ve already told him
Just what, already heard
You can only trust a grenade
His only hope, in his head
Still, not giving up
He seeks out jobs
With knocked of sounds in his head
The doors bell rings
No one’s home
Still, he opens the door
No human presence, all in his head
He relinquished his heroic pride
Prefers to try as all soldiers do
He goes back to his medic
They tell him “Dehydrated, drink water”
He knows lies
He recognizes hopes
Here, there’s none
He prefers to die but, heroes never lose hope
They have in their heart
Letters written by them
God just like them
Wake up, you not ready to go
As they wake up
The sun comes for them
You sacrificed your life
It’s me coming again, am your only friend
Don’t give up
Don’t crawl on your bed
Don’t you ever think you just a pretend
You been severing, suffering from TBI,
traumatic brain injuries
It is no joke
Others may dismiss your symptoms
Oh, no not I
I, was once’ s like you
My suggestion to you
Write a letter to the Pentagon
Grab your heroic peace
Piece out all the puzzles
Find a healthy brain cell
However, perhaps one
Gather all your platonic platoon soldiers
Protect their hearings by fighting your lives
It’s now, not later identifiable object
Blows safe to explain brains injuries
That is to prove experiences of TBI’s
As if hit by a truck, roadside bomb or collision
It’s all too sad:
To leave a soldier parked in his basement
Where no one hears his cries
Unfair because, he heard all of ours
This is your Poet, Minerva A. Garcia