similar wars

similar wars

another war ending

more guilty feelings for not

being able to pick up a gun

or a fellow soldier’s  severed hand

or memory, a letter home

some part of speech lost

this war

had less protest than that one

where we would have put a daisy

in a gun barrel

and said “ make love, not war”

and surely the feelings are different now

my reluctance hardly balances

your willingness

my comfort weighs lightly

on your sacrifice

my desire for self-preservation

is too thin a veil to obscure the generosity

of you overcoming your fear

my inability to know what I might die for

can not diminish your steadfast belief

that you were doing the right thing

yet, at the end, I am here alive

while you are number 4,487

on another list of those lost to memory

who can say thank you, now

and have it mean anything

to your family, to anyone

conscripted, enlisted or dodged
does it matter whether this war
was any more necessary than that war

will it matter or not
if your death or my life was in vain

Barry DeCarli

Ferrisburgh, VT

December, 16-18, 2011
This poem was revised on Veteran's Day 2014

Copyright 2011 Barry DeCarli