No mysterious imagery. No complicated structure. Just a straightforward poem relating to the episode, "Survival."

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from "Starsky and Hutch." I do occasionally borrow them, but never with fraudulent intent or with an eye to monetary gain.

Old Soldier

By Pony

He still hears the echo

Of proud, marching feet,

The ordered advance

And the panicked retreat,

The rat-a-tat rattle

Of guns overhead,

The cries of the living

And the moans of the dead,

The cursing of strangers

And reassurance of friends.

For Col. Sonny McPherson

The war never ends.

xxx

His service revolver,

He keeps by his side,

Near some tags on a chain

From a comrade who died.

He eats from a kit

Stored tight in his pack

And sleeps on a roll

Carried low on his back.

And though base doesn't answer

Any message he sends,

For Col. Sonny McPherson

The war never ends.

xxx

He walks his patrol

With a soldierly tread,

Saluting to generals

Now thirty years dead.

A battered old bike

Is a jeep to his mind.

He rides through the past,

Leaves the present behind.

And he wanders the desert –

The front he defends.

For Col. Sonny McPherson

The war never ends.