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Collateral Damage

Winston Derden

My father, the military man,
missing in inaction,
no killer,
in the medical corps,
a killing vacuum.

Veteran of three overseas actions,
booted in between on Army expeditions.
Wife and children intermittent companions,
a year or less or more, half life on
any post minus exposure to radiation.

Here and gone and home again,
occasional patriarch,
understudy without rehearsal,
decisive in his patrimony
to mask the role’s unfamiliarity.

The third war spun him back
to walk the lamp-lit streets
of our suburb within a city,
armed with a survival knife,
souvenir of jungle living.

Not much later,
I left home
to find a home,
first isotope sprung
from nuclear fission family.

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