In Honor of…

Memorial Day, several haiku and a poem commemorating young men and women serving in the military through the years.

ruptured duck…
listening to dad’s stories
of Indo-China

***

Memorial Day…
the silence
of white stones

***

last deployment
yellow ribbon replaced
with black wreath

***

patriots
the few, the proud, the Marine
fledglings off to war

***

One Hand

What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Or can it wash itself,
or tie a shoe?

For me, it is but temporary, a mere blip.

But what about those whose loss is more permanent?
Those who have lost an arm? A leg? More?
And the unseen wounds of war? The PTSD?
for twenty and thirty year old kids,
The time away from family
in deployment after deployment
The experiences of the battlefield,
friends and foes alike lying in their own blood,
with their own losses.

“They volunteered,” the old white men say,
the ones too old to do battle themselves.

Complaints fall on deaf ears as the soldiers are sent
again and again
to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and beyond.

“Let’s send in ground troops,” the hawks say,
the ones who rake in the profits,
never considering the loss
to families,
dads missing births, mothers missing first steps,
parents missing the milestones of life,
children missing a mother’s kiss, a father’s hug.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Or the touch of a hand unable to cup a child’s chin?

ruptured duck… from They Gave Us Life: Celebrating Mothers, Fathers & Others in Haiku Edited by Robert Epstein, Middle Island Press, 2017
last deployment from Failed Haiku, July 2017, and featured on Charlotte DiGregorio’s blog in October 2017
patriots fromThree Breaths Nancy Brady, Drinian Press, 2013
“One Hand” from Hessler Street Poetry Anthology 2017, Writing Knights Press, 2017

All poems by Nancy Brady, copyright protected