Military Poem
Cadets Linda Hindman In the long blue line Uniform Regulation haircuts Regulation set jaws Eyes Front Posture Perfect. They bore your colors Would have given Life Limb At war for you. Heel-spins crisp At the courts-martial, Fierce tears Proven Heart Faithful service Brought no mercy. As each listed away To join mercenaries, To become unkempt Soldiers of Fortune You took it as late evidence That they were never patriots And did not see That soldiering Had become All they knew Or that your unstaffed colors fly Forever Behind grieved eyes. Here I am The new recruit Uniform Haircut Jaw set And regulation eyes Even Steady Waiting at attention Present Arms Ready for rejection, Dishonorable Discharge. But like Sergeant Jasper With all a hero’s heart I have yanked the bloody staff From hard white hands To bear the colors on Over scores of bodies Frozen Flattened Faces up Staring as they lie Dying in dusty boxes Of ephemera. I hate each For the grotesque picture Of my mortality And that we die By friendly fire. |