Crucible of Civilization

Crucible of Civilization

The moment I arrived in Iraq
I wanted to go home.
I didn't care about patriotism,
the president, or the U. S. of A..
I just wanted my mother to hold me
like when I was a baby.
Subconsciously, I knew
once I got baptized in death
in the Tigris and Euphrates,
home would not exist any more.

My innocence was quickly lost
like heads severed every morning
on that Haditha bridge.
Jesus shrunk and strung them
on rosary beads
where he kept score of the war
but kept the logic of his calculus
to himself.

Even He became post traumatically
stressed and
schizophrenically separated
from the Holy Trinity...
because we have come full cycle
and this site of the Garden of Eden...
and birthplace of Abraham
now is the beginning of the
end of the world.

Lost is the soul of this soldier.
I am now hollowed out --
damaged goods --
good only for the muscle-memory
of war;
terrified to return to my
innocent family...
innocent like I was
before I climbed off that plane.
I do not want my children
walking on
this minefield
of me.

Cole Eubanks

Posted over on Poets Against The War