May 25th, 2015

 
Happy Memorial Day:

 
"He did not understand the war --
"He understood the blistering injustice of it; the stroke-like fear in the faraway sight of the raped as they blamed him for not being there; the accusing eyes of the children that leered from atop distended bellies even as they starved; the seeping lines of grief lacerated into the faces of fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives who had lost all they loved; the tortured and the maimed becoming in part or in whole separate from who they once were; and the Dali-draped carcasses of the dead.
The evil of the war bored into his heart, twisted with agony until he learned to ignore it --
That is, until he could ignore it no longer."   - from the Forgotten War by K.O. 


"(He’d) seen a lot of death in his life but it hadn’t inured him to the pain of it, the tragedy, the loss, the suffering.  On the contrary, it had a cumulative effect; on darker days this effect swamped him in a Tsunami of emotion and after all the smaller waves passed a big one threatened, and he would watch it nearing shore with a rising dread…"   - from Chandlers Bar (a work in progress) by K.O.


Sometimes you can’t repay people for an act of kindness, loyalty, or charity, but you can try -- 
Sometimes life is in the effort.         

 

Please give to the Wounded Warrior Project/ P.O. Box 758517/ Topeka, Kansas/ 855-448-3997