In My Chasm

And I, in a coma, am experiencing suspended death.

My thoughts race in a drift, twisting in on themselves,

Going nowhere. They just move and turn.

I am lying in a misshapen, wrecked automobile,

And these are the last few seconds of my life,

Though they seem very long to me. I went here in my

Mind to escape the awful heartbreak. The awful truth.

My platoon is under heavy gunfire in Baghdad. I have

Been hit, and cannot think of my family hearing

The immobilizing news of my death. So I really am just

Here dreaming, waiting for the darkness to settle.

I am strapped to a bed in a ward full of screaming,

Confused patients, and yet I do not hear even the loudest,

Because I am here, in reality,

Facing another beautiful day.