SCARRED
With the tenderness of
His scarred right hand,
The hand he rarely
Offered to anyone,
He stroked the white head
Of his neighbor’s goat
As he looked into its eyes.
This was the communion
That nothing at the VA
Could provide, this was
The peace healing his wounds,
The other side of war
He had finally found.
This poem is from the book War Zone by Michael Miller (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/war-zone-by-michael-miller/
Michael Miller’s first book, The Joyful Dark, was the Editor’s Choice winner of The McGovern Prize at Ashland Poetry Press. His third book, Darkening the Grass, was a “Must Read” selection of the Massachusetts Book Award in 2013. His poem, “The Different War,” 2014 Winner of the W. B. Yeats Poetry Society, was anthologized in Yeats 150 (Lilliput Press, Dublin). His poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, The New Republic, The American Scholar, Ontario Review, The Southern Review, Commonweal, Raritan, The Yale Review, Pinyon Review, and Passager. Born in 1940, Michael Miller served four years in the Marine Corps. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
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