Nov 18
By Tyler VerGowe
I’ll never forget, the very first day.
You were the first person I met, inside our company bay.
We talked and we laughed, and became best friends.
I knew it would last, until the end.
I had your back, and you had mine.
Nothing could change that, not even time.
We got deployed, and sent to war.
We shot and killed, and kicked in some doors. Read more
By David Anderson
Inspired by the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history. It is estimated that families of half the dead never learned of their fate. Antietam changed how armies accounted for war casualties. The Tomb of the Unknowns is a tribute to those whose fate was lost forever to combat. At Antietam the pain created was unmeasurable, it rippled across the nation in ways that can never be known.
It was the final day I heard from you my love, my best friend
Now time has stopped for me for want of any news, good or bad
The seasons change but my boundless grief has not, my pain unmeasurable
If I could know your fate would I finally find some peace
It is the unknowing that tests my sanity, my memory of you unchanged Read more
by Mariecor Agravante
I.
When I was a middle school girl
I read books on battles of the world.
I perused Alexander the Great,
And Leonidas at the Hot Gates.
Marathon, Salamis, Carrhae, too;
Adrianople I had in view.
Pharsalus was pivotal, I’ve heard;
Actium sparked tactics navies observe.
And during the Medieval Age
The Battle of Tours was a vital gauge.
I learned of Hastings, even Bannockburn,
Crecy and Battle of Tannenberg.
Watling Street gave us famed Boudicaa,
Who’s studied in war curricula. Read more
By Jason Haag
Death is everywhere
He is killed not once, but infinitely
You are gone, but seen every night
Each dark night, vanquished from the battlefield
Silent, still you speak
A soldier’s death, mud, blood, smoke, fire.
We are separated by all
Eternally connected as one
Perished in a land unknown by most
Etched in the mind for the few
All those that have gone, silent forever
Still each dark night they venture home
and speak
Jason Haag is a U.S. Marine captain who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Jason is also the director of fundraising for the non-profit Helping Heal Heroes. He lives in Fredricksburg, VA with his service dog, Axel.
by Pamela Hart
What about your son, Nancy
Flanagan wonders, but really
she wants to talk about her son
Tom, in Afghanistan
who never got with the program
six-two, on the swim team
until he was kicked out of high
school, has trouble with rules Read more
By Richard Epstein
The Plane touches down after a steep decline
The door opens, I squint hard in a searing sun.
I breathe shallow in furnace-like air
Heat waves shimmy and wiggle
to escape the scorching concrete
Hueys and Cobras park in single file
A Caribou roars as it backs up to unload
its cargo of steel helmeted 19 year-olds
And there stands the enemy–
a thin old man, black pajamas,
worn flip-flops and leathery skin. Read more
by Charlie Palumbo
I stretch up, high
reaching from my fingertips
that point in all directions,
wavering with the frantic howl
of the boisterous wind.
I wiggle my rooted toes
deep in the dark
soil, spreading them out like veins
inside the earth’s terrain. Read more
by Matt “Doc” King
Cold with no covers trying to stop the night sweats
Demon and angel on my shoulder laughing, taking bets
How long will he sleep? How will he awake?
Silently sitting up or with a violent quake?
Now it’s toss and turn, trying to quiet them
The moaning resembling an old time choir hymn
Eyelids flutter; hands clench tight
To sheets now soaked, drenched with fright
It’s not a scary movie that haunts the sleep
Nor is it sickness that makes my pores weep
There’s never an end, at least I’m told
By the ones who went first and now are old
O-Dark-Thirty