Korean War Battles
Robert Ricardo Reese

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1953
old geumgansan & busan perimeter
& the morning-calm land on the yalu river front

these battles       jesus mother mary of joseph
vain curses come to mind       this sore

throat of memory as the silence       endless wire
sandbagged-trenches       thuds & rips from every shell       loud noises:

loud noises just like thunder
shrapnel hails from the clouds.

1993
the left cheek bone wounded in the ricochet
rice paddy’s thorny stillness  

in quiet flesh       lead star clink in the retired
soldier’s sink       the shrapnel coming out

after those long hidden years.