Vets Know

Vets Know by Odin Roark Deployment (Via Refrigerator Magnets) Sweetheart Should have told you I’m sorry I’ve buttered the last piece the heel you never eat Can you forgive me? I toasted it like you used to do like you used to make for me I can’t be back for a while I’m Here (Via Email) Nobody Told Me They say ‘cause I’m alive and healthy I’m supposed to grieve in stages A bit presumptuous, eh? Just how is this insight acquired? Maybe Just maybe If they’d outlined the steps Both of my bereaved deployments Might not have ripped heart and spirit Into so many scattered pieces Maybe I could have asked friends Weep with me? Maybe I wouldn’t have excluded them These many months of loneliness But then Maybe I wouldn’t have accepted This fragile courage To double check my mags Make sure the chamber’s loaded Step cautiously and nudge the child’s severed arm Closer to her body Wipe my eyes clear Take another step forward Can’t help wandering When and how was I supposed to get it This euphoria of numbness some call it This make-as-you-go survival kit Nobody told me I’m There (Via restrictive mail prohibiting my saying where) Tainted Reality in search of… WE With smartphones Computer smart cars Driverless transit Gigabyte this Gigabyte that THEY Crippled minds and limbs Wheelchairs Prosthetics Crutches Beds Knowing sure From where they came Knowing not Where they shall go THERAPISTS Caring in their way Address the circles Like gentle creatures awaiting validation Veterans attentively turn ears Leaning forward Sitting Reclining Still breathing Compassionate directives Come forth Some square shoulders Others straighten legs A few retain stoic resolve While the heartiest Blink their acknowledgment Some with the left eye Others with the right Whichever has survived SOME Stare blankly Neither here in group Nor there with the blasts Merely as existence in limbo Why try? Asks one ‘Cause there’s still a mission to complete Comes the answer To retain life in that arm you still have To keep atrophy away from the spinal chord smashed But not severed by shrapnel To know There is help There are choices There is life of another kind Needing to be shared To prepare those of the next war THEY In the circle will learn to adjust Some with eyes of glass Skulls of titanium Feet of shapely plastic All with hearts still beating WE Destined to become… Jaded TV spectators Will tweet our friends Cell-photo our spouses Even unconsciously text ourselves Ya gotta tune this in Wow! THEY As few Like a circle of timid buds Having weathered tempests unimagined Await blossoms that may never come Awakening each dawn A little at a time Nurturing desired full bloom Knowing very well Storms so often happen Are part of it all But always Even as their numbers remain scarred They continue unblemished A different reality Untainted I’m Back (Via special air flight) A Zip Bag Memorial What were once men and women now but ragged and putrid bundles Without thinking they were idealists courageous loving Why This marvelous inspiring mix soul nerves intellect rendered still decaying camo-rags shrouded not with angel’s wings but swathed in black a savage mantle of flies carrying off sacred parcels war’s memory immortality in ruin Quick for God’s sake Zip the ****ing bag Sweetheart I’m on my way They’re bringing me home