Portable CD Players

Out on the front line,
(nights are the worst),
the sentinels stand watch,
waiting for the next attack to begin,
knowing it could be the last,
fighting to the very end,
ready to kill or be killed,
thinking about the girl back home,
or the wife, the two kids,
the car, and the house
with the white picket fence
then realizing,
that none of that much matters now;

dead or alive;

for the first time
I understand portable CD players
and headphones.
.
.