A Soldier Told Me

A poem for Memorial Day

Privates First Class Carl Baden and Arcadio Carrion of Company B, 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, laying in the mud waiting for artillery to knock out the 50 Cal. Machine gun bunker that has them pinned down in a tree line at My Tho, April 4, 1968. The soldier on the far right is unidentified. Photo by SP4 Dennis J. Kurpius, 221st Signal Company (pictorial).

A Soldier Told Me
            
                 for Dragica Rajčić

I’m frightened by motion 
and stillness

the song’s beginning

the one which is about 
to leave us both.

A salamander told me  
the world never wanted 

to be this way. 

A soldier told me
the world never wanted to be

this way. 

The river runs from winter 
again and again. 

War being the opposite of rhythm

the song ends 
with a line about 

a child’s bruised belly
a plum too ripe to lift.