What Is Left of Honor
POETRY FORMAT, 24 Mar 2014
Tom Greening – TRANSCEND Media Service
Based on Los Angeles Times story “U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Hits 2000” Oct 26, 2005.
After the IED blew
on the bridge over the Tigris River
the medics scraped the body parts
that had once been Jeffrey R. Wallace
out of his HUMVEE
and put them in a small box.
Later his medals were pinned
to his neatly folded uniform
which was put on top of his closed casket
and all were buried in Illinois dirt.
The reasons for the war and its continuation
have also been scraped together,
and that mess, too, will be buried
with what is left of honor.
Someday Jeffrey’s daughter Ava Grace,
whom he never saw,
may dig them up
and try to understand
what her father died for.
________________________________
Tom Greening: “I engage in five professional activities:
Faculty Member at Saybrook University
Private Practice of Psychotherapy
Clinical Professor of Psychology, UCLA
International Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Writing (Poetry).”
www.tomgreening.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 24 Mar 2014.
Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: What Is Left of Honor, is included. Thank you.
If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.
This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.