outside UNO's Bar and Grille

you don't ever

tell a man

who's been through

Vietnam

that this is the 3rd time

he's told

 

the same story

 

nor do you perform

a great injustice

by trying to re-tell it

 

to someone else

 

you called yourselves Shadow Company

(more aptly named radiant solitude)

 

you shot him between the eyes

when he was coming out of the bathroom

after smashing your radio

 

"What order?" you said

"I didn't get no order."

 

(you meant to say "go f**k yourself")

 

he stands outside

UNO's Bar and Grille

in the shadows with his company

(cigarettes and Canadian Club)

dressed in black from head to toe

 

(if you weren't my brother, I wouldn't have noticed you in the dark)

 

he was never drafted

he was never called to serve

he was never uprooted from home

 

and yet

there are parallels here

 

we were

always fighting

the same war

 

Reviews

[Kenna Marie]

Wow, I really am digging this one. Especially with the whole hot topic of what courage is "Real" courage that is really streaming the media, this has the sort of relevance that addresses it well. I love the distance of the interaction here... the men in the poem aren't in depth communicating because of this boundary and disagreement. Powerful.
Loved reading it (and re-reading)!

[The Twin Arenas]

heh. I like it. Had a nice anti-authority ring to it.