Upon Visiting the Veterans Hospital
Upon Visiting the Veterans Hospital
(Steve Rogers)
Even if a man has been chopped down
to leglessness and lingering, worshiping
at the altar of what used to be, he is not without
his will to be so incomplete and gnawed—
so human—that he cannot unwrap the bandages
on his dangling hand and, with groaning
effort and malice, offer up his middle finger—
“middle” being inappropriate since the stump
holds only two branches in its entirety.
But it is definitely the middle finger
that he gives to me, shouting, “Hey, Captain
America, now that you’ve fucked me, pay me!
Pay me my severance so that you can walk away.”
*This poem appears in The SNReview
Taken from “…hide behind me…”
click to hear me read this poem
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