• UNDER THE SAME SUN
    by UC Poika


    my heart goes out to you for what you do
    protecting us! that’s magnanimous and nice,
    to live at the edge with panic close at hand
    as the smell of gun powder your psyche bears
    and the taste of sudden harm, not new to you,
    in settling in, becomes the soul you'll find,
    and echoes back where no one understands
    the hot winds of uncertainty and fear?
    the desert sun has risen once again
    though here the sky is gray and overcast
    and I wrestle with myself feeling it singe
    the hairs upon my psyche’s head at last,
    where soldiers need, my heart knows not their pain
    but their sun above remains unseen and yet unfeigned.