Life on the Line

Poem: "from the book: Life on the Line - Dedication"
by Major Michael David O'Donnell
Life on the Line


If you are able
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentile heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael David O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

Life on the Line

Poem: "from the book: Life on the Line - Dedication"
by Major Michael David O'Donnell
Life on the Line