—George, NC
It is not enough that you served with honor.
It is not enough that you died for the cause.
It is only enough that you are most willing
to die over and over until death has no loss
`til it finds passage through the vein of self
torturing you through its very pounding
How dreaded and parched is your termination?
How outrageous and bloodied damp are theirs?
How might we know the horror of your plight
without looking deeper than the beggar’s eyes,
without examining infinitely the empty corpse,
without narrowing our glance at rib and tongue?
It is not enough that we serve a mighty tower.
It is not enough that we die at its engulfing us.
How might we know when it has come `round;
come to collect our very bones for the sacrifice?
Will it place marks upon our shoulder, forehead?
It is not enough that you served with solid honor.
How might we know without ownership of you,
that you gave up everything of you to save her,
how might we know unable then to see the person?
It is not enough that you, sir, were willing to die.
It is not enough to lay claim to that and that alone.
It is only enough that you are one most willing,
death to repeat within you and you evaporate
to die again and again and again and...
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman
VetsForPeace -- Iraq InsurgentsBBC Bush Denial of Civil War
VFP of Maine -- BBC Iraqi Prisonbreak
Beautiful and provocative, as usual, as is the accompanying artwork. I'll need to read it many more times before I begin to understand its message, but that is my own shallow thinking. I would be happy to read its interpretation by others.
ReplyDeletePoliticians care not for the sacrifices of the past.
ReplyDeleteThey care not for the sacrifices of the present or future.
They only care that someone is willing to sacrifice in their stead.
Or for their cause.
10-4! Good to see you, D!
ReplyDelete