A Soldier’s Death

Soldiers do not die for country.

They die for themselves.

A roadside bomb

blows the uniform off them and

they go stone cross naked to the grave.

We call them heroes.

What do they call themselves?

Nothing—they call themselves nothing.

They are dead—all the semen of life in them is dead.

Morning turns to mourning on death’s immaculate barge.

Hero is a word that dawn only on the living.

The dead never speak of it,

or

of

anything.

©2005 Dan Kantak