The walls which I’ve erected,
ever resilient they stand.
Time-tested and proven,
you shake them in violent ways.
Chipping away with hatchets,
compassion branded deeply
into their dense hickory handles,
calling me out from asylum.
Your song breaks down the barrier,
rattling the bones of my cage.
“Come into me with your rage,
bathe in the body of my embrace”.
Still, isolation smiles, it beckons,
“Oh familiar friend, is it time?”
You grant my unsubtle retreat,
patience pounding ‘neath your ribs.
From my turbulent, raging river
I hear your song again and again.
Toppled walls and no shield to bare
I fall brilliantly into you, unknown.
Chris Madsen is a former Scout Sniper and US Army Veteran. Read more of his writing here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Listen to our latest episode with Kimberly Evans on the Savage Wonder Podcast, where we interview incredibly talented musicians, artists, writers, and theater professionals, who also happen to be veterans.
Join us every Saturday through June for Gnit, by Will Eno, a cautionary tale about, among other things, how the opposite of love is laziness. Gnit is a faithful, unfaithful, and willfully American reading of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, a 19th century Norwegian play famous for all the wrong reasons. Settle in with a delicious mocktail and dessert, and be sure to get your tickets early or they might just sell out.