missing in action
sandra sealy
He that volleyed seed so willingly
Is gone,
Leaving woman and child to cry out
In anguish
To deal with the pain of his loss alone.
A mother queries,
What Enemy has stolen him
Like a thief in the night
From their tent of love
Suddenly camouflaged by hate.
Was it the lure of furlough in new lands,
Or a lust for conquering unknown territory,
Or escape from the shackles of commitment,
Or differing charted paths thourgh the jungle of life wrought.
By growth
By sudden clarity
By a comeliness now grown stale?
Casualties bloodied
With gangrene wounds oozing
Confusion and pain on the inside
watch wraithlike spectres of their fathers
disappear
over
the
hill.
this piece first appeared in Nation Newspaper
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