The Brother in a Wheelchair

I saw the brother in a wheel chair sitting in a corner of the room.
Missed him on first glance.
Don’t know how I could have.
His eyes, locked in fight or flight, filled the room with their emptiness. (Does he ever blink?)

A sensitive soul perhaps
Unable to make the midnight blast from family farm to killing field
Had not the bravado to shake hands with the dead
Nor shake the smell of napalm from his nose

Taught the fight was amongst men
Hand to hand on the field of battle
Glory…..Honor and heroism.

No one mentioned the sight of children dying
And old women crying
And old men frying.

The brother in a wheel chair
Had a tale to tell
But it seemed that few could listen
As the truth is hard to hear

No need
His eyes, they told it for him.

As I passed him in the lobby
And he sat there all alone
It took me less that a minute to think this thought
The brother in a wheel chair appeared to have been
Locked in the same thought for the last forty years.

Reviews

[Sheila Kline]

OMG...this is outstanding! I can just see him sitting in the wheel chair as you have so vividly expressed his thoughts, and concerns!!
Yes, there is much he must carry to his grave - all locked in his mind!!
You have a way of bringing the reality of a situation to the forefront!
BRAVO!!