“It’s raining (on veteran’s day)”
\na poem by Stephen J. Sekula<\/p>\n
It’s raining on Veteran’s Day (clich\u00e9),
\nand when I walked up to the wall –
\nrain drenching the National Mall –
\nI ran my hands along its dark
\nand glistening surface where the names
\nare carved, cracks in a mirror.
\nTheir names are what is missing from the stone,
\nsomething left behind when dust is thrown
\nby the etching of a life into the rock.
\nNearby, frozen men wander a Korean jungle,
\nthe threat of snipers or landmines
\nis written in their eyes, weary and fearful.
\nA great pool, a field of stars, reflecting
\nthe Atlantic, the Pacific, and Ike calling
\nout to those about to storm the beaches
\nthat he believes in their devotion and skill,
\nto duty and to battle (but mostly, in their will).<\/p>\n
But what is left behind when children are dressed
\nin gear and given a rifle and taught how to fight?
\nMothers and fathers, pretending to get on with life;
\nthe teachers who taught then how to write, and add,
\nand think so that they wouldn’t have to go to war
\n(Unless they had to go to war);
\nthe doctor who tended their scrapes and bruises
\nafter some schoolyard dust-up over nothing.<\/p>\n
There is a silent bargain struck when we truck
\nour people off to combat in the cities or the mountains:
\nthere is a cause worth fighting for that waits for
\nthem when they return from bloody war.
\nAnd so, today, remember all those men and women
\nwho sacrificed their lives in war neverending,
\nso that tomorrow you may teach, and build, and think,
\nAnd make this country worth defending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“It’s raining (on veteran’s day)” a poem by Stephen J. Sekula It’s raining on Veteran’s Day (clich\u00e9), and when I walked up to the wall – rain drenching the National Mall – I ran my hands along its dark and glistening surface where the names are carved, cracks in a mirror. Their names are what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-writing","7":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3121,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions\/3121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}