Poet's Platform Column | 10 July 08 by Janet Nesler | The Scioto Voice | Wheelersburg, Ohio

TOUR OF DUTY The tour has ended I am coming home Meet me at the station Engulf me in your arms Hand in hand we’ll walk Enjoy the sun and rain Among the trees and flowers Love will bloom again So we can start anew Florence Wagner Portsmouth   THE TATTERED BIBLE It was in a trench, in Iraq, A soldier brave and strong, Took from his pocket, a tattered bible, T’was once his dad’s, in Viet Nam. The pages were faded and marked upon; The scriptures, oh, so clear, He too, trusted God, to keep him safe, As he felt the Savior near. Reading the Word in the dusk of evening, Gave hope and peace to a soul in grief. He laid his head on the ground that night, In rest, comfort and renewed belief. God will be his all and all, He will protect and guide, And keep him unto Himself, With love and power by his side. He was filled with joy and boldness, To proclaim the Word, and  the Son, From daddy’s tattered bible, To the soldiers, one by one. That night, in the roadside trench, A peace they had never known, Filled the soldiers as they heard, Of the promises God had shown. It was that tattered bible, Old and worn, but loved so dear, Brought the Word of God in power, To the soldiers that were there. Salvation came so freely, To all of those who would hear it, Because of the tattered bible, And the soldier, filled with the Spirit! Virginia Davis Wiseman Cicero, IN .   In Mogadishu The dust swirls along with the flies The heat stifles and people die in Mogadishu All is pain, it never rains The bodies smell, it is hell in Mogadishu Fear and Hate never abate It’s push and shove, there is no love in Mogadishu Speed the day,  don’t let me stay All here suffer, God must start over in Mogadishu Charles Lloyd Turner