“Only They Know How”

by Thierry D. Hall They were trapped in wire cages like cocoons, that unforgotten highlight, beneath a yellow moon, slowly breaking each new hope between the repeating, pacing, footsteps of shadows darting, faces unseen. Though blinded by sandbag hoods in a HESCO fortress there was no hiding the truth in a war they were born with; they saw the end, praying for their lives in rhythms, in hymns. In their hands what was left was—these hours. The hourglass was life, flowing, gone grain by grain, one by bomb, Death as name. Casualties brothers, sisters, they called them all though no answer was ever heard beyond the HESCO wall, but I hear them all from a black site afterlife that lives next door, forever, to me now— how long will I hear their pleas in still moments? Do not ask Him to translate only the Dead know how. - - - Note: A HESCO barrier is a component of a rapidly deployable modular construction system manufactured by Hesco Bastion Ltd. Available if various sizes, it consists of a collapsible wire-mesh, cloth-lined basket that can be filled with local sand or gravel to provide ballistic protection.

 

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Thierry D. Hall is a Poet from Southern California, a war veteran, and engineer. Most of his time is spent sitting in a circle, in the heart of an Orange. Thierry’s work has featured in Instant Noodles and Outsider Literature.

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