​Things They Left Behind


We rehearsed invading bunkers over 
dimpled plains of sand and rocks too small 
to offer cover. Support team shifted fire 

as comrades cut wire on knees, praying 
for blessings of smoke grenades. 
We were ready for anything

but this. 

Patches, guns, discarded uniforms. Each bunker 
as welcoming as a child’s tented bed. Sleeping rolls, 
food tins, patterned rugs—ours for the taking. So slight 

the demarcation between warrior and pillager. Face down
inside a bomb crater lay three officer’s bodies,
bullet holes between their shoulder blades— 

a gift left behind 

by deserting troops. Opened wide on each chest
was a cavern where a beating heart should be. 
Scattered at their feet were pamphlets explaining

how to don and clear a gas mask. As if that might 
protect them. One newspaper with Arabic headlines 
showed a grinning caricature of George Bush, 

but I never deciphered what it meant.




Salvage


Sturdier than it appears, 
the musician stands upon
spindly legs made from wire,

torso crafted from flattened
bullet casings. Even its
composition proclaims,

There is more to me
than meets the eye.
From detritus in our wake,

Bedouin artisans create 
frozen moments of harmony. 
Ignoring the howling

storms of this world, 
the figurine strums 
its wire guitar, 

miniature crooning head 
cocked to the sky. 
Close your eyes, 

you will hear not only 
chords of blonde hair 
and blue eyes, but the dusky 

wail of a ney vibrating
in your chest, echoing
down to your DNA.





Soldiering On


When last I slid my rifle in its rack,
unlaced my boots and stowed my uniform
with all the freight of war that I had borne,
fury’s claw marks laced upon my back,
I stumbled from the shade of all I knew
into a world I long strove to protect
without belief one day I could expect
the ice within my bones to melt anew.
But in light of day, rage can’t survive 
and hope warms all who in her sunlight trust
that life has more to give than blood and lust.
Disarmed, I gulped blue air and felt alive.
Headlong at life I charged and wasn’t scared
to drop my shield and let my heart be bared.