We Told Him We Would Hold Him Forever

 

some men never wore
uniforms; keep them offshore

 

shackled to an I-bolt in the floor,
to a different kind of war

 

he offered to make toilet rounds
so he might see his brother. oh, what a spring

 

it is, said his brother when he found him.
I can’t tell you, he said, how beautiful

 

that line of poetry is
in the original.

Rachel Zucker's latest book, Museum of Accidents, is forthcoming from Wave Books. Language in this poem was taken from the "Habeas Schmabeas" episode of This American Life, 2006.

 
Copyright © 2009 by Rachel Zucker, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. Copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the editors are notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.