Just Another Soldier Poem by Jenny Kalahar

I am just another soldier
Ignoring every death I've seen
At a table set for euchre
A puppy at my swollen feet

I am just another guardian
Another warm body breaking down
Plummeting like the Ace of Clubs
Blown across this hellish ground

Shots like drums beat in my ears
A sound of rushing blood there, too
Flowing like stale water flows
Seeping into hellish ground

And every breath I take and give
Is from the wind before a storm
Or stormy orange lightning strikes
Of the storms themselves
Washing down a rain of fiery death
Pounding into this hellish ground

And when I find my home again
And greet my own, grown pup
And feel the arms of family
I wonder if I'll stay in their embrace
Or if even the beats of my ragged pulse
Will shock me back to where I've been
Pulling at my soul until it's gone and sucked
Into that distant hellish ground