poem

Advising the student who came back from Iraq in autumn


I asked him

What did I ask him?

Did I ask if he’s OK?
If “it’s” OK.
Are “things” OK?

He’d started college
before the tour, and now he said
he wondered if he’d be too dumb
for it, coming back.

My god I just go home, and I see maple leaves
scattered, covering the green
completely. And that is my life

going from here
to there,

seeing things to be gathered up
and reassembled

only to be scattered again.

-
Ruth Mowry

October 2007

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