Matthew Borczon

Who Am I

What good

is there

in bleeding

all over

everyone

with these

stories of

amputated

women and

broken soldiers

who am

I to

spread these

nightmares

outside of

my own

head

I already

wake my

children with

my screams

at night

and scare

my wife

with my

silence and

frustrate

my psychiatrist

by refusing

pills so

who am

I to

speak about

things a

man should

want to

forget.

I am

another broken

American promise

poor working

class middle

aged man

who fell

for a

Roy Rodgers

John Wayne

line of

sands of

Iwo Jima

smoke screen

who packed

the wounds

and cleaned

the dead

who pulled

the staples

from human

stumps and

swept bone

fragments into

small piles

I’m the

guy who

had to

hold it

together until

I could

lose it

all in

night terrors

and dead

baby dreams

who still

looks for

survivors in

crowded bars

and restaurants

I am

the proverbial

poor boy

who fought

a rich

mans war

and I

am what’s

left

after you

raise what’s

left

of the flag.

Matthew Borczon is a writer and Navy sailor from Erie Pa, He writes about his time in the military and his service in Afghanistan in 2010-11. His work has appeared in many small press and online journals and his Chapbook A clock of human bones was just published by the yellow chair review.