Dear James

SPC James A. Maestas

HSC 244th EN BN (H)

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APO AE 09302

Yes, I think that’s how it started;

I’d made him promise, before we parted,

To write me when he got overseas,

And James always aims to please.

His first letter was one page long,

Telling me all about his day

And asking for news of what went on

At home since the time he’d gone away.

I wrote him back, then and there,

Trying not to feel self-aware.

Did it say too much, or not enough?

My words always felt so rough.

But James, he never seemed to mind;

Stories from home would fit his need,

Just as he could always seem to find

The words I needed most to read.

He wrote me all about the heat,

About the dusty, dirty street;

And then, one day, about his work

When he became the company clerk:

Organizing, and keeping books,

Putting calls through on the phone,

Getting supplies ordered for the cooks—

He was the cook when he was home.

He told about the kids he saw,

In a village outside the law

Without a thing to call their own

As they tried to make it all alone.

The chocolate bars I sent would melt,

But those small hands reached out for more;

On their small knees in prayer they knelt

And this James felt, right to his core.

We grew much closer in that year,

Though for twelve months he wasn’t here.

In Baghdad he learned quite a lot—

Lessons I know I never forgot.

I wonder, sometimes, if he knows

How much those letters meant to me.

Though he’s here again, his shyness shows

That home is not what we thought it to be.

Home is not about physical touch,

Which we seem to think means so much.

Home is really not the same

As playing flirtation’s silly game.

I can be close to someone miles away

And know him better than my hands,

Or farther from neighbors than I can say,

As if they were in foreign lands.

Home, real home, is built on trust;

Compared to this, the other is dust.

Share the desires of the heart,

With laughter and tears as a place to start.

This kind of friendship makes you whole,

Since sharing part of what’s inside

Helps you to touch another soul

With hope and home your only guide.