PTSD Warriors



Met a true comrade who honoured me with a great honour.
After he listened to confessions of my finest hours,
He saw me as a veteran, called me a true one percenter.
As we shared the horrors of each of our stories,
Then stared in honour of each of our courage.
Taken back was I, the surreal feel of this moment.

Quickly I grasped at the impact of his statements,
For years I had worn the same PTSD label,
Being pigeon holed as the most mentally unstable.
Both of us fighting a battle for normality,
In a body that failed because of burnt out nerve endings.
One of us proud to protect and honour our country,
One of us proud to survive some of your nightmares.

Without unconditional love from an army of people,
Or the total cost of the devastation that’s happened.
PTSD will destroy every fine person,
Beyond recognition of the person they once were.
To put a measure or compare our battles,
Is not something that can be measured with whose hell.

Instead recognising that we all face challenges,
That took away our ability to find comfort.
Opening our eyes to the depth of destruction,
To our lives, our families and friends.
Living on survival mode just trying to stay here.
Fighting not only with the constant triggers,
Flashbacks, memory loss, lots of aches and confusion.
Paranoia, fear, causing your worst kind of delusions.

Pills, pills, pills, you need to be heavily sedated!
Yet free to heal with patience and understanding.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, you have not quite suffered enough yet!
Although we recognise you have been through quite a bit,
You know unless you are one of the easy, not too broken,
We won’t waste our time trying to mend the unspoken.
Your epic life will just be another wasted token,
And a reminder that you will soon be forgotten.  

About this poem

I wrote this poem in honour of a friend who served i as a peacekeeper in East Timor.

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Written on November 11, 2016

Submitted by Neomortalgirl on April 21, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:46 min read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAXXX XCCXXAX CXDAXX XXDXABDX XXXXDDDD
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,778
Words 354
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 6, 8, 8

Geni Kelepouris

I began writing when i was 16. I enjoy expressing myself through all forms of art ( my profile pic is one of my art pieces). I have had a life full of tragedies and suffer post traumatic stress. I find that art and writing soothes my soul and allows me to heal from all the pain that has been haunting me. I have an obsession with existence and love nothing more than to discuss all the different theories of why we are here. My poems cover a range of topics from love and inspiration to complete random mania. There are also some very deep poems that i needed to write to get the sorrow from my life. I just hope whoever is reading them enjoys them. more…

All Geni Kelepouris poems | Geni Kelepouris Books

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"PTSD Warriors" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/126533/ptsd-warriors>.

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