2009
12.31

Got himself a shiny new box

All wrapped up in red white ‘n blue

Here all pretty to see mama again

After he got blown apart four thousand miles away

In some desert shithole

He couldn’t even pronounce

Put back together again to see mama

© Shannon Peil, 2009
[others]

6 comments so far

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  1. Damn….

  2. Very fine. Caught me totally by surprise. Lines broken in all the right places.

  3. this “poem” isnt even artistic in any way
    i would like to see you deal with the realities of war in any way but mocking them
    but i bet this comment wont be approved anyway so it doesnt matter does it?

  4. Guess again <3

  5. You don’t have to agree with the implied political sentiments in this poem to appreciate the way it is put together. I think it was Henry James, the novelist, who said you have to grant the writer his or her subject matter and judge then what the writer does with it. On that level this poem succeeds in that it uses the vernacular without simply being prose written in lines that are flush left and ragged right. So much prose today masquerades in drag on poetry blogs. This is a poem. And its quiet execution hits you in the gut. Whether one believes in the war or opposes it, he or she can empathize with any mother who welcomes home the flag-wrapped coffin of a son.

  6. sad but true!