by Carlin Corsino
(“An IED Blast Survivor Runs a 10K Race” mobile version)
The day I met you
was the story about
mechanical legs falling off
in a ditch on a 10k race
covered in excrement
by the roadside
blast
years before left
incapable of running alone
across the line to which
you crawled even after
leftover medals
found homes
in the trash and littered
confetti stuck to your mess
tar feathers
in the machinery
intended to preserve
life had failed you
now lying in the sand
Sun burning down
yelling or laughing
even to be
heard faintly
across the desert
something pooled
unaware hands
pulling, finish
line evaporates
100 meters away.
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Carlin Corsino is a retired Army physician. The great privilege of his Army career was training medics. This is a poem about the man who inspired him to set off on that path.
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