Читать книгу Thresholds and Other Poems - Matt Hohner - Страница 13

Gulf War Veteran

When he returned

from the desert,

a former high school

classmate brought home

an extra pair of ears,

each taken from

confirmed kills.

He talked of stars’

brilliance through

night vision lenses,

of breathing acrid smoke

from the well fires

and coughing up

globs of blood and oil,

of scorpions seeking

drops of moisture

in soldiers’ mouths

and stinging their tongues

as they slept.

Part of me died

that evening

when I saw him.

He never returned

from that war.