War.

death is coming closer;

a constant march.

LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT

My cousins are soldiers, or commanders or lieutenants.

It won’t matter when they’re in Korea or Russia or Syria.

It won’t matter when there are bullets and grenades and landmines.

It won’t matter when they’re the only women in the platoon.

It won’t matter when they come back wounded

or….

I don’t know war,

So who I am to say?

Vietnam, Korea, World War II--

studying isn’t synonymous with knowing.

Vietnam was a result of Containment,

But PTSD is a result of bad policy.

Korea was a result of rising tensions after WWII

But a lost limb is a result of a roadside bomb.

World War II was a result of an ambush

So is a dead friend.

Unscarred countrysides,

scarred countrymen,

fighting for America without America.

But who am I to say?

I don’t know war.