Skin In The Game

It was deep in the dark of December
And began with a great hue and cry
A blizzard was raging, remember?
A patient had bid them goodbye

The reason it landed so badly
Was something they could have foreseen
The media mentioned he'd sadly
Forgotten who once he had been

"No one," they emphasised "need be alarmed!"
In a quite disingenuous claim
'Til someone suggested, "He's possibly armed
And maybe has skin in the game!"

I know you have your recollections
Of when you first heard that he'd gone
How soon, despite all the objections
The media circus moved on

They all have to meet other deadlines
There probably wasn't a gun!
And so he'd dropped out of the headlines
As simply a man on the run

But when he found he was surrounded
For one final time he became
A soldier again being hounded
And one who had skin in the game!

It's a cold wind that blows down the hallway
Swirling the dust as it goes
It could have been Tuesday or Monday
Or any old day, I suppose

They'll tell you now no one intended
To try to provoke the Marine
That really it all should have ended
Unexceptional and dull and routine

But one of them taunted, "Remember..."
And catcalled the combatant's name
"It's not like they said in December
You never had skin in the game!"

They reckon that's why he'd concluded
This wasn't a time to hold back
The hunters who'd come and intruded
Now found themselves under attack

He'd loosed off a couple of salvos
It seemed that he did have a gun!
But down in the dust and the shadows
The end had already begun

They'd come, as we might have predicted
Regrettably, but all the same
To take out the luckless afflicted
The one who had skin in the game

There were of course mild repercussions
Exactly as one would expect
The medics concluded discussions
The paperwork all had been checked

According to most of their studies
He'd only been doing his best
Defending himself and his buddies
At least, so the therapists guessed

"There is a perverse kind of beauty!"
Their final report would proclaim
"A soldier, whenever on duty
Will always have skin in the game"