dog-tagged
the thin cold metal
next to his heart
Published by
Margaret Chula
Margaret Chula began writing haiku in Kyoto, Japan, in 1980. Her first collection, Grinding my ink,
received a Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award. Maggie has been a featured speaker and workshop leader at poetry conferences and festivals throughout the United States, as well as in Poland, Canada, and Japan. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
View all posts by Margaret Chula
Very poignant. For my friends who didn't make it, thank you.
Having just spent the weekend with my 84-year-old veteran father, I continue
to rethink the meaning of Memorial Day. Your poem's "thin cold metal" helped me do so–what a tangible way of feeling war, that simple cold memento ever-present and in such close contact / conflict with the human heart.
Made me think: once a soldier, always a soldier. Even a peaceful soldier.
I really love this. It captures my own experience as an army medic. Thank you.
This brought back some memories of my Ex husband who is still in the army… Thanks for the poem.
I find this so moving.All the sorry of war seems to be there in so few words which makes it even more powerful.
An eloquent haiku for Memorial Day. So spare and moving.
I am hesitant to comment on haiku with a military subject – or at least such poems that one sees published on Tinywords. To my mind such works, like the heroism of the ordinary men and women who place their lives on the line in times of war, should be received with reverence and gratitude – almost with a bowed head. Which puts me in mind of the slight, unconscious bow of the head when a soldier puts on their dog tags.
Margaret Chula, thank you for sharing your profound memorial day poem.
dog-tags –
all that remains of his
armour and shield
Strider