Poetry || Submissions

Photograph of the soldier
Thomas D. Reynolds

So perhaps the message was an attempt to comfort,
to placate, saying, "Here's my face, my shoulders,
that you may look at and know that I'm all right."
And yet his blurred countenance fails to convince,
nearly swallowed up by the faded paper's smoke.
His clean-shaven, even gaunt, face glances away,
avoiding the camera (or his folks), concentrating
on some object to the far left, possibly a window
or the photographer's dog, growling at a table leg,
who to escape boredom, engages in mortal combat.
Or perhaps his shabby coat causes his distraction,
several sizes too small and buttoned to the neck
(formality something a young brother might admire).
His stiff hair, needing a trim, nevertheless obeys
a liberal application of thick oil and lies down,
while in several places threatening to break rank
and charge back into the woods, deserting a cause
it has heretofore never bestowed much allegiance.
The slightly sunken jaw and indecipherable mouth
perhaps a familial trait, or sign of resoluteness
not to betray any emotion to the folks back home.
No message to send, only a document of his face,
accompanied by his shoulders, and haze and smoke.

Thomas Reynolds teaches at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, and he tries to combine his interests in history, folklore, and poetry, in his writing.