The War Always Wants More

(No injuries were reported at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center campus near Bethesda, Maryland, today following a report of a suspected active shooter.  –From ABC News Report, 7/6/2015)

Even here, at least one of them had to
have thought, called to attention by shots
fired; the reveille he fears will come
in his dreams, the sounds he can recall
from the fields, where the sun burned
the sand black, like a billion tiny bullets
sprayed from the sky, itself a blank face,
having seen this story unfold over so many
centuries: the conscripted, crazed by a war
that always wants more, have fallen
to their knees—to shoot, to pray, to die.

Even here, at least one of the patients,
recovering at Walter Reed, must have said,
hearing those shots in the hallway, an echo
or even closer, the same shrapnel finding
its way all the way home, from the desert
(or else some other arena, outside time)
to this place where the wounded—working
to become something sort of like themselves
again—lie, not helpless or entirely out of hope,
praying for a ceasefire, a peace they don’t know
can’t come, for the war forever needs more.

.

The Decider’s Decision

Tell me again
                        about the time
your higher father
                        told you your duty
was to believe
                        in the ax, again,
against an axis
                        of evildoers, who
sinned first, tempting
                        a nation trained not
to turn the other cheek,
                        and how your apostles
advocated for you and
                        the use of force that could
be called biblical, sending
                        enemies to the stoned age—
when the one closest to you
                        kissed your ear with kind words
and turned salty water into
                        wine, this act of betrayal
the offense countless
                        inculpable families would
die to redeem, all so oil
                        might flow like tainted blood.

Sean Murphy is founder of the non-profit 1455 Lit Arts, and directs the Center for Story at Shenandoah University. He has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and been quoted in USA Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and AdAge. A long-time columnist for PopMatters, his work has also appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, The Good Men Project, Sequestrum, Blue Mountain Review, and others. His chapbook, The Blackened Blues, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. His second collection of poems, Rhapsodies in Blue was published by Kelsay Books in 2023. His third collection, Kinds of Blue, and This Kind of Man, his first collection of short fiction, are forthcoming in 2024. He has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize, twice for Best of Net, and his book Please Talk about Me When I’m Gone was the winner of Memoir Magazine’s 2022 Memoir Prize. To learn more, and read his published short fiction, poetry, and criticism, please visit seanmurphy.net/ and @bullmurph.