The Beckoning Poetry Post Page


Poetry by Patience Mason



Added 7 November 2000

This is a section where I post poems sent to me by people who have found my site and wish to display their own works. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

This poem is by Patience Mason


I remember how your voice wept

I remember how your voice wept
when you told me

His balls were gone
His leg too
a bloody stump
The skin flapped and sprayed
blood all down the side of your ship
over the gunner and the gun
You flew as fast as was humanly possible
mechanically possible
He still died.
The wedding ring on his left hand glinted
As they flipped him onto a stretcher
And headed for the body piles.

A horrible story. I wept for you inside
but then I had to go make supper,
sing Jack to sleep
wash the dishes
do my homework
run out to buy the quart of whiskey that let you sleep
for a few hours between 1 or 2 AM and your 8 o¹clock class
which you could barely sit through even with two stiff whiskeys
under your belt
And after all,
it was just a story to me<
something awful that happened to you
on the other side of the world‹
Not real
BLOOD
running down the side of the helicopter
not real
BALLS
blown away
not real
DEAD HAND
with the wedding ring glinting
Him.
ME.
HIM.
ME.


copyright 1989 Patience H. C. Mason


Patience Mason first contacted me to share her thoughts with me about Bruce Weigl's poem Song of Napalm. (Her comments have been included there.) Through subsequent conversations with her, I discovered that she is an author and a poet. She is also an advocate for sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and has a newsletter dedicated to sufferers of PTSD which can be found at: http://www.patiencepress.com. Her books, as well as those of her husband, Robert Mason, can also be purchased from the site. Patience performs a great service, please visit her site.