A Veterans' Day poem--

 

Thank You for Your Service

 

…and what about the families:

the wives, mothers, brothers,

sisters, sons, fathers,

daughters and lovers, all waiting?

Sometimes it’s 2190 days

(52,560 hours).

 

The weight of waiting, more than

three million minutes, more or less,

hating the more, dreading the less

 

…unless it’s on leave. Checking

sleeves, counting fingers and toes,

who knows what horrors are brought

and bought by those who serve?

Those who serve breakfast lunch dinner

drink coffeecoffeecoffee & stay

awake nights more coffee

 

Fold the towels, write the letters, cry the tears,

check the mirror, apply the lipstick

and serve up smiles and gather up

linens and stare at the sky. Why lie?

 

…service gets no damned medals. Just

the clink in the sink of forks and knives,

spoons, a jumble of cutlery needing polish,

like iron markers, little outposts of service:

new flags on graves.

This poem first appeared in Gertrude's Writing Room Community