The Ming Report

CASUALTY OF WAR

July 17, 2003 -

He is someone’s son;
He is someone’s father;
A husband; a sweetheart;
A brother; an uncle;
A childhood friend;
And the kid who grew up down the block
His picture stares out at you,
From the front page,
Of the Chicago Tribune this morning.
Is it a sightless stare?
One eye is closed and only the white shows in the other.
They are working on him.
One soldier sits at his head
The helper’s bulging bicep is decorated with an intricately drawn dragon.
His face is turned away from the camera.
One hand cradles the bandaged head, the left,
While the right hand is spread and resting on the casualty’s brow,
Another works at his side,
Two hands extended as though applying pressure to the abdomen.
We see no blood just that anguished face turned to the camera,
An empty one-eyed stare,
A neatly trimmed mustache;
Jaw slacked and lips parted.
It is the face of guerrilla action,
An RPG attack on a convoy out of Baghdad,
A war that they tell us is not a war.
Someone’s son, someone’s father,
Someone who we thought we knew
And someone who we never met..
He is one of us.
A reservist,
A casualty of war.