So small is the distance,
Between politics and prose.
Just as the short distance,
Between the grave, under the rose.

Let not my words provoke outrage,
But clear thoughts, resolve and calm.
For I left all my outrage,
In a distant field in South Vietnam.

I just gave my neighbor, Ms.Collins,
My only Silver Star.
To her firstborn and courageous,
Just lost, in a land, way afar.

Then I gave her my Purple Heart,
To gently lay on his grave.
So little I could share,
For the life he just gave.

While I knew there were no words,
To justify her loss,
I gave Ms.Collins my heart,
In a world long ago, I counted her cost.

So there is not so much distance,
Between politics and prose.
Just as, so small the distance,
Between the grave under the rose.