Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Poem: Welcome, death by Silvia Brandon Pérez

And so it is confirmed:
the latest, not least mourned
because of death so near
the year's end

has found a final rest
amid the noise and excrescence
of putrid war; three thousand
of our gallant young

NAME NOT RELEASED YET
which but means
the mother does not know,
the spouse or sister, father,

will receive
that fateful phone call,
the one all lovers of a fighter
dread to hear,

Dear Sir or Madam, we regret
your child or spouse or loved one
is now dead; we'll ship
all the remains aboard

a busy plane, they will unload it
at the end, after all passengers
have disembarked; we would not want
our passengers disturbed,

he/she was brave in dying
as in life; you may not know
the reason death was found so far away
from home and hearth and love

because a nation's greed or apathy,
our bloodied hands, with military fervor
must salute the master of disgrace,
heil conquering hero,

welcome, death.

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