Almost Silence

Almost Silence

A minute ago yesterday I was khaki
Dust and sand were companions
And comrades my family
We were young walking old
In boots with heavy legs
Riding strikers on occasion
Meditating on boredom or fear
Going crazy on silence.

A minute ago yesterday I was class A
Battle and terror and death
Hung around as daily weather
Soaking us so deeply
Hero paint bled off in the rain
Showering us with indifference
Slowing the cadences
One by one in silence.

A minute ago yesterday I was stone
Cold as a cadaver among the living
The killing machine asked,
“Where am I?” because
In a crowd everyone is too busy
Too busy to give me directions
Noise, sleep and nightmares
Raged deep inside the silence.

A minute ago yesterday I was staring
Ten thousand yards out there
And I felt guilty for being alive
Life, it seemed, was just currency
Measuring who won and lost
In war, nobody wins because
Truth and innocence die in silence.

A million lives ago my heart broke
And I along with it felt a trigger
The one I almost pulled
Someone saved something for me
And I reached for it thinking,
“Where was it?” because
It's almost sunrise waiting in silence.

Copyright © 2017 Charles Edward York
No part of this poem may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the author.*