October | 2012 |

The Glass by Beauregard Storm

Poet Beauregard Storm started writing and rhyming as a part of art therapy. As a Veteran, he would like to share this piece with those who have PTSD and tell them this: “Never give up the fight to find yourself again. Never let anyone take away your pride in your service.”

This is a powerful piece of writing; we feel honored to share it with you.

The Glass by Beauregard Storm

Three times I was asked the age old question

Was the glass half full or half empty

Always afraid of a trick, I could not make sense of the axiom

The possibility of either did make me think a plenty

–

One day, two friends came over for drinks and filled theirs to the brim

I took my own glass, curiously looked, and filled mine halfway

Not to boast, but asked for a toast, and let out a grin

I asked them the same question, each one, to let them say

–

Both were concerned for me and afraid of my mental disorder

I drank, drained the glass, and washed it in the sink

I finally had made myself think it through in logical order

I saw it as both, neither, and a tool from with which to drink

–

I saw optimism as always being naive and ‘exactly’ half full

I saw pessimism as always being ‘exactly’ half empty and no fun

I saw realism as the glass is just a glass with the question void and null

Opportunism is all three combined and my answer is done.

–

It is only because of freedom bought by our veterans that we may not have known

That we get to own, keep, share, and drink from such a thing as our own glass

I have also stood the watch for 20 years – even though I did not make it on my own

So I reserve the right to use the glass that I bought with my shares, to drink, share, and or smash

–

My glass again sat upon my shelf

I drank from it all alone

I washed it all by myself

Because it is mine to own

Book Review: The Living and the Dead – Brian Mockenhaupt

The Living and the Dead: War, Friendship and the Battles that Never End

“The worst feeling,” Sergeant Tom Whorl scribbles in a small spiral notebook, “is not knowing when your last step will be. That’s what takes a toll on your brain.” With those simple words, he captures the gut-wrenching day-to-day, life-and-death struggles and triumphs of the men of Patrol Base Dakota, fighting a war that many have all but forgotten and hear little about, save for sound bites about troop drawdowns and defense budgets. Their story unfolds at a Marine encampment in southern Afghanistan, but it could be the story of any young men in any war, trying to do their job when doing their job might mean, at any second, losing their lives—or watching their best friends lose theirs.

In The Living and the Dead, acclaimed journalist and Iraq War veteran Brian Mockenhaupt tells the gripping true story of three close friends—Tom, Ian, and Jimmy—and the reality of how twenty-first-century combat plays out in the lives of those in the fight. How walking through the Afghan countryside is a nerve-wracking gamble as they hunt for cleverly hidden explosives that can tear a man in half. How the families back home live in dread of men in uniform showing up at their front doors with news too grim to imagine. How the consequences of a split-second decision can replay over and over in a Marine’s mind and haunt him for the rest of his days. And how those who sign up to do democracy’s dirty work somehow manage to endure the unendurable.

The Living and the Dead is a moving and timeless account of bravery, friendship, struggle, and sacrifice in the face of unimaginable tests. It is an unforgettable tale of battles that continue to rage long after the final shot has been fired.

Brian Mockenhaupt is a contributing editor at Esquire and Reader’s Digest and is the nonfiction editor at the Journal of Military Experience. He writes regularly for The Atlantic and Outside. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Pacific Standard, Chicago magazine and Backpacker. He served two tours in Iraq as an infantryman with the 10^th Mountain Division. Since leaving the U.S. Army in 2005, he has written extensively on military and veteran affairs, reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq, hometowns, and hospitals, and even Mt. Kilimanjaro, which he climbed with a former soldier blinded by a bomb in Baghdad. Prior to joining the Army, he worked as a newspaper reporter in the United States and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, at The Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper, and as a contributing reporter for the Far Eastern Economic Review, reporting from Cambodia, Burma and South Korea. He studied journalism at Northwestern University and has an MFA in creative non-fiction from Goucher College.