Emerging from their war —
a time and a place
where strangers wanted him dead
and his elders preferred him dancing
on a string —
he returns to us as Lazarus on steroids
Discharged back into the world
that didn’t want her back
she is fast becoming
our very own identity crisis
trying to pull her humanity out
from underneath their manufactured rage
Not to understand why or how —
for the sake of you or me —
but merely to survive
in a world they can claim as their own
in a world of their own design
To pass on to others
some artifact shimmering
with their pain and despair —
not for your pity or mine —
and certainly not for praise
But for our children’s sake
as they yearn in our shadows
to craft their own world
free of war memorials
free of uniforms dripping with medals
free of patriotic charades
Rawlings is a Vietnam veteran and the author of four collections of poems: Orion Rising, A G.I. Portrait, In the Shadow of the Annamese Mountains, and A Baker’s Dozen (children’s poems). He is a founding member and former poet laureate of Veterans For Peace.
