Sgt. Grit,
This past Christmas I traveled with my wife and two girls from Northern California where we live to Chicago, the city I grow up in and my parents and two siblings live. While there I was surprised to here that my younger brother wrote a poem for his schools veterans day festivities. I got to tell you, this poem really got to me. Not that it wasn’t as big of a deal to him as it was for me but that he couldn’t understand why I was so touched after reading it. He put this poem together himself and was the only kid in his grade to have something for the special day.
Semper Fi
Peter Jurczyk
CPL USMC
2nd Battalion 1st Marines
1998 – 2003
Brother
We get a call on a warm spring day.
“I’m going to Iraq,” he would say.
My mother yelled, my father swore
“This stuff happens when you’re in the corps”
He leaves the country, to fight a war,
but no one knows what it’s for.
He sends us letters, he sends us cards.
We send him fruit inside of jars.
He tells us stories of his battles,
of his hardships, and of his travels.
Now he’s home, living life,
with 2 kids and his wife.
Some call him crazy,
some call him lazy.
To you it may be one or the other.
You call him what you want,
but I call him my brother.
Back to Poems - Back to Marine Stories Page - Back to Scuttlebutt Menu