similar wars?
another war ending
more guilty feelings for not
being able to pick up a gun
or grenade
or hear a fellow soldier's dying wish
to carry 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 are doing the right thing
yet, at the end, I am here alive
and you, number 4,556 are
on the 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
or just the luck of a high lottery number
does it matter whether this war
was any more necessary than that war
can it matter now
if your death or my life was in vain
Barry DeCarli
Ferrisburgh, VT
December, 16, 2011
Revised in 2015 and 2019
©Barry DeCarli
Reference to Vietnam and Iraq
Photo credits:Vietnam "flower power" war protest photo from Wikipedia
Iraqi Freedom photo from www.itv.com
