"What Do You Do..."
By Steve Callahan
what do you do,
when all seems lost
when the frost turns
green grass brown?
what do you do,
when your life
that you’ve built by hand
carefully planned, brick by brick
topples and scatters?
does it matter?
do you take that long black road
where no joy is found
and the wayward trees consume the path?
do you retreat?
go back to eat at the table
you’ve had so many bad meals at?
do you idolize the past?
bastardize the future?
or do you walk
like that old wizard
one foot in front
of the other
down the path of most
resistance
trudging through the pain
through the rain
of your tears,
knowing
that you’re growing
and never
wanting to stop.
Steve Callahan is a writer, a poet and a former Marine infantryman. Bursting with creative efforts, Steve runs a poetry site, podcast, and is heavily involved in PB Abbate. Steve’s writing covers his experiences in the Marines, his deployment to Helmand and the psychological peaks and valleys of an infantryman’s life. Follow him here.
Listen to our Podcast with Steve here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Listen to our latest episode with Lois Hicks-Wozniak 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.