Call them home | Guest Poets |Axisoflogic.com

Call the soldiers back to yourselves you
mothers who gave them birth rescue them
from the dream they’ve adopted
that is a bright dungeon promising glory
but bringing the face down in mud
legs and lips blown off
body riddled with trails of assault rifle bullets
they’ve forgotten how to let their souls speak
as once with you in warm home the current
passing between you and them
a fertile river your darlings call them
however you pray pray now
for the light between you to enlighten
an oval enclosing in its glowing hoop
bring them back to remember themselves

insulated iron men
call them
rouse by the bells of your voices
(unless you still believe the lie)
say the secret word the powerhouse exclamation
the electric verbs propelling back to where
their spark like a lantern renewed
grows again help them restore
minds from the foreign sway of unconsciousness
they are absolved when they answer
the call you supply from your sacred reservoir

the wars collapse like houses of cards
hollowed out buildings demolished by a breath

This poem is the title piece in a new book of poetry by Gregory Alexander. I'm pleased to have read several of the other poems as well. Here is a link to where you can find his book, 'Call them home'.

- prh, ed.

Gregory Alexander has been a poet since the age of 13.
He studied English and World Literature at Middlebury
College, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia
University. He lived on the West Coast for 19 years, and
earned his doctorate in Counseling Psychology at the
University of Oregon in 1984. Since then, he has been living
on Long Island, New York, where he worked as a staff
psychologist in a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital for
25 years. He is currently in private practice.