“Charms” by Georgia Heard
Soldiers stuck the ace of spades into helmet bands,
lugged Bibles through jungles in backpacks,
cradled Mezuzahs, locks of hair, crumpled photos
of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the Pope,
The Beatles, in camouflage pockets. Crosses,
St. Christophers dangled from strong necks,
resting against fearful hearts.
They slept with creased snapshots of families,
wives, kids, dogs, clutched tightly in their fists.
One soldier even carried a homemade oatmeal cookie
his entire tour of Vietnam, swaddled in tin foil.
When he was homesick
he unwrapped it,
held it up to his nose,
to smell
what home
was like.
Those charms are holding on to not only their homes, but also their humanity. I can't help but think of all the negative charms too. I wonder how many smell the charms they kept from the war to remember who or what they were? Or try so hard to rid themselves of all those bad charms. The poem can speak to the horrors through the need to stay connected to the past life.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good youth poem.
I loved your comment on "negative charms". This is something we really do not think about.
ReplyDeleteThis poem really reminds me of the Nicholas Sparks book were the soldier found a photo in the sand in Iraq, a photo of a woman whom he did not know, a beautiful woman who turned out to be, of course, the wife of a fallen solider. After he returns to the US this soldier tracked the widow down to thank her for saving him with her photo...and ends of falling in love with her.
This also reminds me how much we take for grated. I just finished rereading Wild, Cheryl Strayed's account of her summer trek on the Pacific Crest Trail and how all she really dreamed about for a large portion was Snapple lemonade....out of all of the things she went without...these treasures that we do choose to carry- for her, a book, The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich that reminded her of her mother, are some of the most interesting things in the world.
Interesting notes about Wild
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