Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting

Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting

I tell her I love her
like not killing
or ten minutes of sleep
beneath the low rooftop wall
on which my rifle rests.

I tell her in a letter
that will stink,
when she opens it,
of bolt oil and burned powder
and the things it says.

I tell her how Pvt. Bartle says,
offhand,
that war is just us
making little pieces of metal
pass through each other.

Kevin C. Powers

Posted over on Denver Literary Examiner