The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Side Stepping

Dessa Rodeffer - Publisher

9 April 2003

(portions of this poem altered with permission of the author in memory of Cpl. Evan James, U.S. Marine, age 20, from La Harpe, Illinois who died March 24, 2003in the first week of war on the Iraqi Regime in Operation Iraqi Freedom.)

The photo album worn and old is sitting on the pile,
She flips the cover open just to reminisce awhile.
On the first page there she is, a baby in her lap,
Her son when he was one year old; she smiles as she thinks back.

That was taken in the park where she took him to play,
Funny how it sometimes seems like only yesterday.
But other times it seems those days are distant memories,
And all we have reminding us are pictures such as these.

She sees a picture of him with his second birthday cake,
And smiles as she remembered of the face that he would make,
When trying to blow out the candles he would have a fit,
He tried so hard to blow them out but they would all stay lit.

So Mom came to the rescue with a waving of her hand,
The same time that he blew on it, she waved a little fan.
She smiles as she thinks back at all the things when he first tried,
When she would lend a helping hand and then just step aside.

She sees a picture of him standing holding his first bike,
And smiles when thinking how he said, "it's harder than a trike".
But she would run behind him holding on while he would ride,
Until he got his balance and then she would step aside.

She turns the page and sees a picture when he was in school,
Remembering he used to say that it was not so cool,
To have your mother waiting for the school bus at your side,
So when the bus would get in sight, she quickly stepped aside.

She goes on through the album like a trip down through the years,
And as she goes from page to page her eyes start forming tears.
All through his life she stood by him in everything he tried,
Until he could do it alone and then she stepped aside.

But even though she stepped aside she was always near,
With a mother's worried heart and with a mother's fear.
Knowing that a day would come when life would have a plan,
For her little boy who now has grown to be a handsome man.

She closes up the album and looks at the fireplace,
She sees his picture on the mantle with his smiling face.
Called to active duty and he's serving now with pride,
And once again with worried heart, she had to step aside.

"A freedom fighter" he wore it well Ð he believed in liberation.
He chose the Marines, no second best, to fight for this great nation.
As distant "Thunder" sounded on Bagdad that first dark night
She knew her son would give his best to serve us all with pride.

But then within a week she got a knock upon her door
Two Marines in their dressed blues carried news from a distant shore
They told how her son had given his all that first week of the war
He was first to swim the Saddam Canal, but never made it o'er.

Her heart was heavy, how could this be, she knew his strength, his fight,
Her tears streamed down, her hope was gone, her son had stepped aside.
This time he had given the ultimate, for our country and his peers.
He learned at home, to step aside, for those you hold most dear.

God Bless Cpl. Evan James -United States Marine
God Bless His Family