You live like a wanderer
but don’t go anywhere
that’s not who you were
what happened on the road
at some point you froze
decided to hold still
pretending you were still moving
did you think that
you could stop running
because you were now
more of a monster
than the monster who chased you
really all you’d done
was shape your own Hannya
fitting it perfectly
hiding the child he was
hiding the man he became
beneath the fierce veneer
the battlefield became your theater
giving you the illusion of movement
calling yourself a ronin
thinking your mask gave you strength
when it was in fact the sword
that you always held
Now you want to put down the sword
you want to take off the mask
but it has fused to you
you walk off the stage
looking for the road
it has changed
as much as you have
the people on it
see what they think is your face
unknowing
that you are wearing a mask
that you don’t want to be a monster
not anymore
but it doesn’t matter
you stand still
the people move around you
you pretend you’re moving too
Anthony Roberts is a veteran of Baltimore and Afghanistan. He currently lives in New Jersey in a home with beautiful views and interlocking fields of fire.
He is the author of Pigtown and The Clearing Barrel.
You can follow him here.
This week on the Savage Wonder Podcast…
Jason Pizzarello is a Connecticut-based playwright and co-founder of Stage Partners, a digital licensing house for new plays (yourstagepartners.com). He is currently developing his plays Lost Near Daytona, Found (Semi-finalist, Arts in the Armed Forces Bridge Award) with The Tank /dir. Meghan Finn, and his outdoor immersive children’s play Off the Trail (grant recipient, Frances R. Dewing Foundation) with CT’s Stamford Museum & Nature Center. Other plays include: Bethel Park Falls (Everyday Inferno Theatre Company/NYC Central Park, published with Playscripts); After People Like You (Blue Riders at Classic Stage; Finalist, AITAF). He has also developed his writing with Soho Rep Writer/ Director Lab, Irondale Ensemble, Fordham Alumni Theatre Company, HERE Arts Center, The Flea Theater's Pataphysics, New Group's Playwriting Workshop, and the Veterans Writing Workshop. Over thirty of his plays for young actors are published and have been performed over 3,000 times in all 50 states and in over 25 countries, including a Norwegian and Bengali translation. When he’s not writing, he proudly serves as a logistics officer with the New York Army National Guard, and is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan/ Operation Enduring Freedom.
Jason's military-themed drama BRAT won VetRep's inaugural full-length playwriting competition. BRAT is the story of a mother and son - both veterans of the forever war in Afghanistan - as they struggle to reintegrate into the civilian world and mend their broken relationship. Jake signed up to follow in his mother’s footsteps, but doesn’t get what he expected when he returns home to confront everything, and everyone, that’s been waiting for him.
Our judges said the following about BRAT: "Mysterious, emotionally sound, haunting — it’s also clearly a very personal piece. The language is lean and spare, the opening is terrific, and the last scene is gripping."
Follow Jason here.