To Soldier
- To Soldier
My traditional Christ-image was somehow inadequate.
—C. G. Jung
Grateful for bread Grateful for toast grateful for deployment to a bridge under a freeway
Under the sway of winter wars command the world satellites in space and praise is underdone
Pleasant as an ache Remembered for its lie First it was a place Now it’s come to this
Underneath the sky Glaciers sink and fall A thousand and more men Die before they know
Grateful for wars Generals make their case We need this you know To comfort and seduce [End Page 249]
So they die for you with summer in the air breathless with belief we understand your loss
Grateful for lambs whitewashed on snow grateful for delusions and a thousand flying geese [End Page 250]
Maxine Chernoff is the author of six books of fiction and eight books of poetry. She is chair of creative writing at San Francisco State University and edits New American Writing. In 2008 her new book of poems, The Turning, will be published by Apogee Press, and her translations of Hölderlin (with Paul Hoover) will be published by Omnidawn Press.
