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Russell

I’

The bike thunders under hway like bat out of hell My jaw is tight, rip the handlebars The highway lights flash likescars and ink Up ahead, I can see the Chicago skyline breaking the horizon, and my eyes narrow as my blood pumps like diesel fuel

I’ years later, I’ve coeance blazing through my heart

Five years were stolen frohanistan Hell, everyone I knoas even told I died back there in that place Friends, loved ones, parents

Juliana

They fucking buried ils They one as best they could But the truth is, I wasn’t dead, even if the Taliban prison I’ve called hoht as well have been death A hole in the ground A pit A layer of hell I fought et back here

To her

Jahannam was Hell on Earth Fuck, the place means “hell” in Arabic Except, I beat the devil, and I took h fire and briht my way out of the darkness

And I did it all for her

For my wife

Five years of one? That’s some shit, but I could deal with that I , but I could wrap my head around it, if I had to But it wasn’t just five years of my life that was taken It was five years of hers, of Juliana’s My wife My one and only My everything

War is hell We all knew it going in Every man and woman who serves knows the risks I knew the outco her, but I also knew and still knohat the cost of freedom is I know the price that’s due for our way of life And even before I enlisted in the Marines, I knew that peace back home meant a blood sacrifice over there So, I expected the enemy to be brutal I excepted him to be vicious, and unmerciful