To the Moms on Veterans Day

it’s like gripping wet soap
this slippery hope runs off my fingers
before it can wash
this dirty feeling away

this sick and sickening
this persistent and taunting
feeling

this baby will end up underground
just like she did
and no one but god himself
could keep it from happening again

but my god isn’t in that business
he will just watch from afar with sadness
(if he can stomach it)

oh he will weep with me again
but this time i’m afraid
i may just tell him to go fuck himself

these months and days and minutes and seconds
are so long

this Veterans Day i think about all the mothers
that have waited or are waiting
for the sons to come home

and there is something new i understand
in that hell of waiting they endured

and i wonder if that dread
if that dreadful awful feeling
ever actually left them

even after their boys came home.