brave

His guts were aching with fear. Run he thought. His legs froze.  His mind screamed at him to run. He couldn't go forward because of the death he faced.  He couldn't run because he would be a coward.  He froze, unable to act  He could not be a hero and he would not be a coward.  He faced the death of war or the thousand deaths of a coward. He heard the shell scream but never heard it explode.
His mother received a letter telling her how brave he had been. 

11 comments:

  1. This is touching. Having never been in war, I can't imagine what that's like. I've only read bits and pieces of my Dad's manuscript about his journey in the Vietnam war and it makes me cry. So hard.

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  2. and I have been in there, in war! at night, it hardly mattered, for we could see the bullets being fired, the glow of distant guns trying to kill us! in the day, we could see the air bursts, but never felt the shrapnels, never saw the shots those killed friends and soldiers. we lived, for the shells, bullets and shrapnels all failed to find us!

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  3. Your post viscerally describes another reality of war. Ever since the first days of the US invasion of Iraq, I have dreaded the repeat of Viet Nam, the actual fighting experience that later irrevokably affected those veterans who came home to a divided country. For me, the flash fiction ends just before that last sentence, for he was a hero. And thank you for reading mine. My sister and I both married Viet Nam vets.

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  4. Catherine, Lionchiller, bluebethley......
    with this post I am trying to show that all men in war are heros and "brave" Brave is conquering the fear in your guts that is trying to consume you and keep going on. My hero is caught in that moment in time that denies him his oportunity to react. "He would not run" He died a hero and a brave soldier. Many men have and many more will.

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  5. And I think you nailed it. Facing death has to be the bravest act there is.

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  6. Catherine is correct: you nailed it. The horror for him. And the horror for those at home.

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  7. The heartache of war and death. Well captured.

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  8. It's beyond my understanding, this is a wonderful tribute.

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  9. this is a sad sad situation we find ourselves in today.

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  10. Old Grizz you have cut to the bone again. Your crisp emotive writing is inspiring.

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  11. G'Day mate, ditto what oldegg said. I couldn't do this prompt....just couldn't... and you wrote it so well.

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