As a decorated army vet,
Sam has learned a few important things:
keep your memory sharp
for that is the only thing keeping
your fallen comrades alive
(nothing else will do the job for you);
understand that the questions you ask
will not always be resolved in the way you want
(life doesn't work in a linear fashion);
You are still human, after all of the
explosions, death, fighting, extremities
and it is a precious thing, not a commodity.
Your eyes have seen more than
can be explained or understood,
A cacophony of images
dispersing across your field of vision,
blinding you to the reality you're somehow excluded from
so that is why Sam finds importance in talk-therapy.
He is an anchor,
keeping everyone around him from drowning,
a rock
as a reminder of stability;
even he, who has seen the world at its worst,
needs a shoulder to cry on
because even the most powerful
can still feel vulnerable.
"Tell me all of your secrets,
Let me pick your brain,
because I can help you
make sense of it," said Sam,
to that vet who is afraid he lost it all
and even Sam keeps saying that sentence
to his own therapist too
because strength comes from connection
and he cannot ever forget that.
Sam may be physically strong
but emotional strength takes time.