Alwaysawarrior

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THOUGHTS THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT'S VIGIL

What will the morning's first light bring
A sense of relief after the night's vigil
Ensuring that others got a restful sleep

So many shadows and sounds playing with you
Your mind, eyes and ears were straining so
To decipher what's real from that imagined

All through a long black night we had watched
Your senses trick you with every single sound
You start to see things after hours of staring

And every sound no matter how faint alerts you
Ready for any situation that may quickly arise
Yet you prayed there wasn't anything out there

Finally on the horizon day's first light appears
Now your senses become even more alert than ever
This is when the VC thinks your guard is let down

As the sun rises I'd see my relief man approaching
You now change positions and I quickly briefed him
Now and only now can my senses start to stand down

I breathed a little sigh of relief as I headed in
Now you'd sign in your weapon, ammo and other gear
You have made it through yet another night in hell

As everyone else on base starts out their morning
You are finishing your shift and just want to rest
But first I'll get breakfast and go to my day job

© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.

We would work our regular duties during the daytime
and if we were very lucky we'd get a couple of hours
sleep before getting back up to go have our evening
meal and then we'd go report to the security police
armory for our briefing and to check out our weapons,
ammo and other gear before being taken out to our own
assigned positions on the base perimeter of our very
small Vietnamese air base for guard duty all night.
It was pitch black out there at night and you would
keep staring out there watching and listening for any
movements or sounds that would forewarn you that the
VC were out there preparing to attack us and at the
same time you were praying that the VC really weren't
out there so you would still be alive in the morning
to see the sunrise on the horizon.

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THOUGHTS THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT`S VIGIL