Girlfriend to wed slain French soldier posthumously
The Times of India, 25 March 2012
I will dress his wounds
as if they were skin
deep, nurse the flesh, keep
my prying, searching fingers
from running to the fleshy lips
of his entry wounds, retracing
the path the bullet ripped
through to his fluttering heart
and beyond. There is no ring
on his hand to pair with mine,
just a number tied with string
to his middle toe. And so
I will dress his wounds
as if I were his wife
and held the rest of his life
still in my hand; and if
I can not hold even this
seeping body, but only
memories of our wedding
plans, and must desert him
to the earth and go
home to his ghost, let me go
in law as I do in flesh
as his widow. Amen.
(c) 2012 Slush Poet
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