Laughing eyes

Laughing eyes they never tell you the horrors that they’ve seen.
Smiling lips they never tell you the screams their ears have heard.

These are the veterans who protect you from the frontlines of pain
and after 30 years you repay them with your fear and disdain.

They hide their afflictions under tattered pants and skirt.
They’ve learned to survive their nightmares, tremors and the dirt.

The scars from agent orange are now hard to find for on
the outside of their bodies there is not an orange sign.

These people, now complacent, their fighting now long gone;
most are smiling, laughing veterans who do not deserve your scorn.