I wrote this on November 5, 1964. The approach of November 11 has often led me to think about the war that made that date memorable, and about wars in general.
"Corporal Abelson: Wounded in Action (but only a flesh wound)."
"Only a flesh wound;" God, have they felt it?
Take a small needle, shining, sharp-pointed;
Press it against yourself, here, on the soft skin,
Pricking so gently you hardly can feel it --
Pricking so gently no blood drop appears, and now
Push your hand down hard!
(Take it out, then, so it won't go on hurting.)
Now take a lead slug, ugly and hot from the force that
it carries and flat-arced with speed and with viciousness:
Dumb, lump, unstructured thing,
Not much deformed or deflected
Because it encountered a man.
Point three-o-three wide, straight through white flesh and nerve,
Missing the bone by an inch and so, barely,
Only a flesh wound.
God, if they felt it!
Soon, it stopped bleeding; soon, it will be healed;
Tissue will flow back and fill the seared passage.
Chemical instinct will patch me together
After a fashion, a fashion far older
Than that which will send me
Back where I may be so lucky
That next time the list will read
Not "Killed in Action," but "only a flesh wound,"
Again.
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© 2007 Anthony Buckland,
anthonybuckland@telus.net
last modified: May 12, 2007
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