Matthew Borczon- Three Poems

Matthew Borczon is a nurse and Navy sailor from Erie Pa. He served in the busiest combat hospital in Afghanistan from 2010-11. He writes about his experiences there and the difficulties of living with PTSD. His work had been published in dead snakes, the yellow chair review, Rasputin, busted Dharma, Red Efts, Dissident Voice, Big Hammer and Hanging loose. He won the Yellow chair reviews chap book contest for 2015 and his book a Clock of Human bones is available through them.

early morning rain

in this town

banjo strings

connect the

power lines

and black

crows play

mountain odes

as they caw

into the

orange sunrise

waking me

from my

dreams of

gun fire and

helicopters

my nights

belong in

the desert

in my

days I

dream of

home.

Oxycodone

spent a

sleepless night

swallowing

ghosts of

dead soldiers

as bombs

exploded on

my TV

and oxycodone

numbed pain

from a

tooth I

had extracted

after it

shattered

under the

blue glove

of an

oral surgeon

I have

drank enough

blood in

one day

to last

a lifetime

this time

at least

it is

my own.

March 2016

Maintenance

I’m tending

the graves

again tonight

cleaning sand

off stones

with a

hand broom

in a

yard of

crosses with

no names

and I’m

checking equipment

tonight 872

suction pumps

and drip poles

serviced nightly

for the

ghosts of

the dead

and I’m

writing letters

for the

wounded

tonight using

words I

don’t know

to describe

things no

one should

see for

soldiers

without eyes

or hands

and I’m

serving meals

to Marines

too weak

to eat

again tonight

hoping to

get enough

inside so

they can

rejoin their

unit in

time to

attack my

dreams