"Thoughts as the Circle Begins to Close"
by Anthony Roberts
Note: I’m thrilled to start off the New Year by welcoming Anthony Roberts to the Savage Wonder literary blog. In addition to many years of military service, he is a graduate of The New School in New York City with a Masters of Fine Arts, he has taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Seton Hall University. His poetry has been published in Southerly Literary Journal, The Other Voices Poetry Anthology, and Vox Poetica among others and has been translated into Persian, Italian, Bengali and Czech. His first book, Pigtown, was published in 2017 by Red Dashboard Publications and was selected by Old Dominion University for inclusion in their writing program. His latest book, The Clearing Barrel will be published by Blue Jade Press in March of 2021.
How many times over the decades
has this view greeted me
the first time at 18
a rite of passage
learning comfort
amid what most feared
the acrid smell of cordite and CLP
became as familiar as grandmother’s perfume
the feel of cheek to stock weld
the way a long wedded couple melds in bed
to lay behind the product of Stoner’s mind
of Colt’s assembly lines
to fathom the trust in me
by my brothers to my left and right
aim small, miss small
squeeze don’t jerk the trigger
release it just enough to hear the click
control your breathing
the mind controls the body
the body does not control the mind
this same exercise
repeated year after year
as natural now
as an accountant punching a calculator
as a surgeon sewing a laceration
a skill that will never leave
a skill I will leave behind
having shared what I know
as I did today
with the young
who have become brothers and sisters
in a way blood siblings cannot
who will not remember my name
but who will hear my voice
long after my tongue has turned to ash
as I remember
and hear those voices from my past
aim small, miss small
squeeze don’t jerk the trigger
release it just enough to hear the click
control your breathing
the mind controls the body
the body does not control the mind
the final round expended
that last crack and punching impact
the target goes down
I turn my back and walk off the line
I will miss this
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.
Learn more about Veterans Repertory Theater here.