my mother told me some time back that my great grandfather fought
for the empire back in world war 2
disposable (like most soldiers from the colonies)
he was presumed dead for about 8 years, k-i-a
but then one day he came back, scrawny and scraggly
and my mother who must be very young back then thought that he wanted a coin or two
and turned him away
but he persisted and then my mother’s father showed up and it was a tearful reunion
and my mother didn’t recall much but did say that he camped with enemy soldiers
equally abandoned, stripped away. no one was coming for them back then, this
they had known even when they were drafted.
but they were all desperate and more than vulnerable,
and confessed that they needed each other,
and that’s how my great grandfather had survived.
a lot has gone wrong since. modern weapons: controlled pigeons
sent from elsewhere
messengers of death
creating ever more spaces
between us