dVerse Poetics: Why war?

It is not difficult for me to write about war or things military. My difficulty is to not.

I wrote this as directed by today’s dVerse prompt.

His Secret War

When he emotionally told me—
he confessed, he squirmed—
with the guilt and shame
that had long lived in his gut.

For him,
it was a hard story to tell.

Surrendering emotions,
“If evil were evil enough;
if good were good enough.

“I would find the courage.
I would fight for right,
one war to end war—forever!”

He was conscripted. Drafted!
It was what he could do
for his country. To serve. To kill
(or be killed).
Maybe he’d find glory. Heroism.
Maybe death.

But wait.
He opposed this war.
He was to fight and kill
but he hated this war.

“Is there another war
more to my liking?”

He felt that killing and dying
were not in his peacenik milk nor
cup of tea.

“Send another,” he protested.

He was ordered to report.
But he was too good for this war.
Too smart. Too woke!
Too compassionate.

He was above it.
But war he did.
And he killed so as not
to be killed. To survive.

And when his war
was no more,
he came home
to discover
that he too,
was no more.
Sadly, he missed it.

Look both ways in war and peace
because each is merely the absence of the other.
Mind the gaps, the traps, the mines, and bombs.
Win your battles to lose the war.

***

Inspired by “On the Rainy River,” a section in the book The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien.

Click here to read more poems based on the same prompt.

 

My book.

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31 thoughts on “dVerse Poetics: Why war?”

    1. Russia will always be there. The bear will never leave or die.

      It is unfortunate that truth dies long before war begins.

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  4. The title says it all, Bill, and your poem unravelled the ‘guilt and shame
    that had long lived in his gut’ effectively, particularly for someone who hasn’t experienced that struggle, even second or third-hand.

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  5. Plenty of vets carry the burden of war home (yes, Tim O’Brien) with the wide wounds inflicted left behind and festering within. Well told here. Years back I wrote a series of narrative poems about vets coming back from Iraq, the madness of what they’d seen made worse by the madness in the U.S. of refusing death’s every semblance.

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  6. So many are deluded into thinking war won’t affect them.
    No one comes back unaffected. I won’t believe them if they say thy aren’t.
    Beautifully done.

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    1. You were correct. WP spammed ya. How’d you know? It knew it was you.

      Thank you for the positive reply, Dale. I agree with you. One of the good things about the PTSD euphemistic diagnosis is that it is no longer “just me.”

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      1. Ah hah! Because, normally, when I leave a comment, I see it immediately (you are not set up to approve each comment like some bloggers). In this case, it just plumb disappeared! And WP spams peeps when it so chooses.

        Yes, that is about the only good thing – that it is actually diagnosed properly.

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  8. You are so write… you may win the war and come home to realize you have lost who you are. This is why, I believe, there are so many suicides among soldiers coming back from the war.

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    1. I have read over 50 Viet Nam War memoirs. In virtually every case, to some degree, the survivors are effected mentally/psychologically, if not also physically.

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  10. Excellent poem and it is sad when people have no choice but to fight. To kill or be killed and those of us who know little of war can never understand what it is like to be in that position. Or the horrors our soldiers live with.

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  13. he came home to discover
    that he too, was no more.
    Sadly, he missed it.

    Great write Bill! Love your close! There is a twist of humour in it!

    Hank

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