Year
She was a twenty year old Latina U.S. Army
enlisted soldier,
it takes a reserve of steel in her soul for a
woman to enlist,
to sign on the line,
then to toe the line,
God bestowed gifts to Vanessa,
one, a heart of a lioness,
another, a bonita presence with
eyes of earth~brown.
She kept her promise to serve
the U.S.,
and rose to fulfill her duty,
she was murdered by a fellow soldier
in an armory at Fort Hood U.S. Army base
on April 22, 2020,
the Fort Hood brass failed her,
and other soldier victims too,
no matter how much they try
to deny their lack of concern and inaction,
in her family's hearts and ours,
the flames of the fiery truth still burn.