At We Write Poems, we were asked to write about healing. Before the healing, there is the injury.
THE WALKING WOUNDED
Some wounds are so deep
so personal, so wrenching,
they cannot heal without help,
without sharing.
Memories spread past membranes
and synapses in the brain,
tentacles reaching, spreading painfully,
tightening the jaw,
constricting breath,
ever growing in power,
wasting the strongest soul.
A boy down the block
came home on leave and
looking in his eyes, I recognized
his agony, his disguise.
He sat with his mom in church quietly,
trying not to scream.
Later, we went for coffee and
unmasked our monsters.
Mine took hold in childhood;
his are war-born, wailing in the night.
New, but no less maiming.
Then came the shared silence
of those who know that tears
are about to flow, and we
both let go, heaving sobs,
wracking but quiet, this cry.
Tears… our only balm.
© 2010 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
Sharp Little Pencil 
sarachnid
couldn’t make it through reading aloud as i always do without choking up in tears – my brother’s over there & it hurts so bad knowing that disguise, that agony – thank you for healing thoughts in this poem – s.
Sharp Little Pencil
Sara, honey, I’m so sorry. Please skip today’s post, “Looking For Peace,” since it deals with more of the same… we pray for your brother and all troops. We also pray for civilians injured or killed in harm’s way. That’s a lot of the burden of guilt returning troops are feeling. God bless your brother for serving our country.
Deborah
Brilliantly written!
Sharp Little Pencil
Thank you, Deborah. This was hard to write but taken from true circumstance. Amy
pamela
Amy,
Crying is a wonderful thing and a way to heal ourselves.
A wonderful write.
Pamela
Sharp Little Pencil
Yes, a good cry, I used to tell my daughter, helps clean out the sad places. It also exercises and loosens the diaphragm, same as a good belly laugh, and that helps our general health and digestion. I’m serious about this, I’ve studied the effects of a “full moon cry” on myself and others. It works.
Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments, Pamela. You’re a true friend. Amy
Sherry Blue Sky
So moving, so beautiful. You recognising his pain, both of you sharing the grief. I feel for the young soldiers coming home from war. So difficult.
Sharp Little Pencil
This was taken from real life. Yes, they are coming home in pieces, mentally and physically. Ironically, it’s the strides in medicine and “patching up” that bring them back alive, but they are in so much psychological pain. Having PTSD myself, I know what it’s like to jump a foot in the air at a thundercrack. Thanks, Sherry. Amy
uponthewingsofnight
I can tell that this was taken from real life. There are some poems that you read where you know right away that it was not only based in real life but very difficult to put to words. This is one of them. A fantastic write, my friend. Brett
Sharp Little Pencil
You nailed it, Brett. I write more often than not from real life… so fertile, so much pain and joy and beauty and disposable lives and spoiled rich people. It’s a neverending tapestry of loveliness and crap…
uponthewingsofnight
I am the same way, Amy. I write mostly from real life, many times in first person.
Sharp Little Pencil
Another trait we share, Brett! A