https://www.flipsnack.com/Remingtonreview/remington-review-winter-2019.html
Soldier
What he saw,
what he did,
indecent and horrific.
He talks about it
in that circular fashion
that avoids facing reality.
That would break him,
so he skirts around
what was required then to do the job.
What else rent him in two,
that conjunction of love for his brothers
and dehumanizing one’s enemies,
in corresponding time and space.
The doing was easy.
He intellectualized the task.
But the aftermath was not cerebral.
Feeling it was so much worse,
yet not having done it
would have been the real atrocity.
The tearing does not mend.
Repellent memories
overshadow knowledge
of crucial guardianship.
He’ll live out
the rest of his days,
not whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment