long ago - she didn’t
Now she writes to a dead man
“better late than never”
Dear Dad
I didn’t know you were
a soldier,
In a war, yes, but
not the reality of it.
You never talked to me
Not only about your
war, but nothing else either
You were a stranger, the patriarch,
No familiarity
Rules, rules, rules,
Never spoken, how did I know
what to do, not to do,
I just knew
I’ve learned you were
damaged
Buried alive in the trenches,
not once, twice,
You survived, either with
help or determination,
I don’t know
The damage I saw but
never understood
The weeping, the nightmares,
The weeping you could hide,
but not the night terrors,
not the hospital committals,
not the estrangement
How could I have known you?
What could I have done?
Tell me if you will
I want to understand
how all of your withholding
benefitted any one but you
I’m sorry too
Yours truly
one daughter
Ellecee
Day 22 - NaPoWriMo 2024
Prompt : Letter to a Soldier
From: TP_Poetry
