TheBanyanTree: SEVEN

[Julie Anna Teague]

This is eloquent and moving.  Thanks for sharing it.

Quoting smack58 at nycap.rr.com:

> This was a  poem I wrote after visiting a friend in a VA hospital.  I
> saw a lot of tragedy while I was there and this was inspired by a
> real soldier whom I didn?t know, but just observed:
>
> SEVEN
>
> He sat in his wheelchair
> wondering
> what next,
> one leg short of a sandwich;
> one sandwich short of a picnic
> one bitter thought after another.
>
> The stump represented
> his missing life,
> his missing limb,
> it hurt,
> it ached.
>
> He wanted to shift its weight
> except there was nothing to shift
> not now...
> not then...
> when he had needed it,
> he'd needed it to run
> needed it to escape,
> to escape one last time.
>
> Seven minutes
> to die half a death.
>
> Seven inches
> left of his thigh.
>
> Seven years
> he'd given to his country.
>
> Seven times seven
> he'd lived past his prime.
>
> And now
> in a room
> he didn't recognize,
> his gaze followed
> cool green walls
> to one made of glass
> then moved to the stone floor.
>
> Where he contemplated the glass
> against the stone
> against the cool
> against the green.
>
> Was the glass a safety measure
> to make him visible
> in the event he fought
> for his right
> to death
> to his dying?
>
> That way they had a jump on things
> catching him before he fell,
>
> Catching him before he fell
> the rest of the way.
>




Julie

~O
<I~ love to run
/>