Love vs. War (with audio) - The T. Collection
The T. Collection - A Retrospective
Music and mix by Extra Sensory Perception
LOVE vs. WAR
You came back from Vietnam
Severely battered but not broken
Aged beyond your years
You had lied about your age
To fight against the ideology
That occupied your native land
For a nation that gave you a home
In a country that was just the battleground
I recognized you as a special breed
You loved in ways I couldn’t appreciate
Giving yourself fully to me
While I was another’s wife
Willing to take on his responsibilities
Believing we could heal each other
Not realizing that his not loving me
Made it easier to manipulate me to stay
I never forgot that look on your face
The sound of your voice raging with pain
I believe something in you broke that day
Something the horrors of war couldn’t touch
But love had brought you to your knees
Made you vulnerable to an extreme
And I wasn’t certain that you could get back up
Yet I couldn’t regret choosing my son over you
I saw you once on the street five years later
Carrying your briefcase just as I remembered
I had just had my second child with him
I hesitated before turning the car around
Just long enough for you to disappear
A trace – an English Ovals cigarette butt – left behind
At home I pulled out photographs and jewelry
As I listened to tapes you had made for me – I wept
I often wondered what you did with your life
Between the time I saw you last and your death
Alice Vedral Rivera - 2006
