"What shall we do today?"
Silence.
"I thought we could go to the park."
Silence.
"Take the kids to feed the ducks."
Silence.
"Maybe have a picnic."
Silence.
"I think the car needs a new clutch."
Silence.
"Katy's in the school play this year."
Silence.
"I wish you hadn't gone once more
to fight their bloody, dirty war"
Silence.
"But I wish even more that you had returned and our family was still whole."
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
From grenade, bullet or roadside bomb
Hostile or friendly fire.
The fallen soldier leaves a void
That silence cannot fill
Barry Alexander
Doha
November 2014
YOU ARE READING
Coalescence
PoetryI am attempting to branch out and free myself from the constraints imposed by the label 'war poet'. I once wrote a poem (sadly lost) which voiced my frustration at my apparent inability to write about anything other than combat and its aftermath. ...
