Doug Anderson: Memorial Day
It’s only old Herman sitting a few yards off in the recliner
who looks beyond them into a burning village where a marine
drags a wounded man by his heels behind a tank for cover
and the tank backs up and runs over them both.
Judith R. Robinson: Black Scar
oh Danny boy
who is no more
he whom I loved
Matthew J. Parker: The Shine On her Shoes
With another Memorial Day upon us, I again find myself pondering its magnitude, which invariably brings me back to 2016, when President Obama met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on May 27.
Mike Schneider: Spring Mills
Stars & stripes ripple from the pole.
An old willow leans over the water,
strand after strand of green tears.
Andrew J. Bacevich: My Son Was Killed in Iraq 14 Years Ago—Who’s Responsible?
The Islamic Republic? George W. Bush? Both answers feel like evasions.
Jamie Rowan: Memorial Day | Why veterans are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic
An estimated 45,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, and 181,500 veterans are in prison or jail.
John Samuel Tieman: To mourn the man by name
Guillaume Apollinaire As we approach the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, it is easy to think of all that as distant. Distant and perhaps overwhelming with its … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: The Break-in
for the wives of war veterans there’s no particular way to hold the past in one hand but she knew his medals were in the drawer he never opened she … Continue reading
Greg Laxer: Letter to the American Dead of the Vietnam War
Veterans For Peace, an organization of which I’ve been a member since 2013, has called for veterans (as well as civilians) affected by the Vietnam War to write a letter … Continue reading →