“War Damage; Korea 1951”

 

I never fought with men

I never saw the steel

But took them in my arms

All those that I could heal.

I never felt the metal

Dig deep into my flesh

Nor wounded by the shrapnel

That tore into their breast.

But wounded did they come

Like swarms of locust clouds.

To find some measure of their pain

Stilled by the swans down shroud.

The men that came

No longer were the men that went

Their bodies far too torn

As reeds that rise against the sky

In fields forsaken and forlorn

Hide the mystery of their souls

That cry, I’m torn, I’m torn.

I do not know what angels fly

High up into the sky

I only know the wounded men

That lived, and breathed, and died.

 

 

About David Licciardi, Sr.:

Veteran of Korean War 1951-1953. I was a field medical technician and a hospital one too. Director International Berlitz Schools of Languages in Boston, Massachusetts - Wellesley Hills, MA and Providence Rhode Island - for 30 years. At 91, now I am retired.