The Soldier's Wife Poem by David Welch

I was a young man when I saw her,
and things certainly began to stir.
Of course, I was only seventeen,
and young minds don't take much convincing.

She was hot, in her early twenties,
and for some reason winked right at me
as I work to put in her garden,
in the hot summer sweltering.

She said that I could come on inside,
cool off before the heat made me die,
chattered about her ‘no-good husband, '
how the ‘deadbeat' had long since run off.

She said that I could use her shower,
then she stepper in too, and for hours
she showed me how two people made love,
that's how my virginity was lost.

The put is simply, she blew my mind,
and several other parts at the time.
I don't know it if was great for her,
but it was quite world-changing for me.

I wasn't a novice anymore,
and I knew as I walked to the door
that this was something I'd not forget,
a long-lasting memory.

At the time I wasn't that disturbed
by the picture of a young soldier
that hung prominently by the door,
I barely even registered it.

And of course I went and told my friends,
the high-fives and hooting wouldn't end,
for a high school kid just starting out
a big score like this makes them hot sh*t.

For a long while after that day
I'd think of it in a certain way,
something unique and special to me,
that I could look back on and smile.

But as I reamed into my thirties
it started feeling stranger to me,
though even then I could not say why,
it would take me a little while…

When I got my own sweet fiancé,
it forced a rethinking of that day.
I knew the trust I had in my love,
and it so quickly began to dawn.

Fun as it was for my youthful mind,
that soldier had loved her as I loved mine,
they'd pledged each other a whole life's care,
only for her to go do him wrong.

And this moment I thought was so great
is now hard for me to contemplate,
that I could have destroyed a marriage,
the foundation of two people's lives.

If somebody had done this to me,
taken my Clair and done the naughty,
if she broke my trust in such a way
I do not know if I could survive.

And the woman who had shined so bright
in my passion dreams so many nights…
How can a person betray it all
for a few hours of decent sex?

Had she ever really loved that man?
Had our affair been part of some plan
to give herself excuses to stay?
What other men had she moved to next?

What if the soldier had never learned?
The though of that just makes my insides burn,
imagining how I'd feel if Clair
had been cheating on me all this time.

The thought of other men in my bed,
and not believing a word my wife said,
then not to even {know she did this…
I just can't imagine such a crime.

I think of that soldier, somewhere out there,
and regret if I caused him despair,
more and more I think of being young,
what possessed me to do what I did…

I would apologize if I could,
but at this point would it do much good?
Would it just cause him needless drama,
cause trouble for him and any kids?

Would he start asking are those kids his?
Was that all that might come out of this?
If she'd cheated once, she'd cheat again,
would anybody know the whole truth?

It would like just cause a big mess,
assuming he's not discovered it yet.
It's sometimes cruel how time strips us of
the things we once felt sure of in youth.