Happy/Sad Memorial Day, Everyone

An amazing poem from our new issue, as we think about all we've lost to war.

E. Douglas Calaway
by Mario Chard

who followed his son into a war
that took his son that was not
....................their own, who fought
....................thereafter as his son,

returned. Lost his wife to those
who kept her in his absence,
....................though he knew it
....................when he left. Who

slept with women younger
than his son, then, women
....................with whom he spoke
....................little of the war and

how the war aged everyone
but those who fought it.
....................Who could not keep
....................dust from falling out

of creases in his palms, from
the hair grown out of baldness,
....................from the sheets where
....................women held him like

their own sons returning.
Who saw the age rinse from
....................his face like sweat
....................from the laundered

cover of a stained and outworn
pillow. Who could not wash
.................... the age behind the sheet
.................... that was his face, behind

the face that was the
war’s and not his son’s.