I look at a picture of an elderly man
Standing in front of a mirror
In his underclothes
The man has the posture of age
The image in the mirror is a young soldier
His uniform impeccable
His body at attention
Awaiting inspection by a senior officer.
The elderly man smiles
Once he was proud to be in uniform
Though it was not his choice
To be in the great war
Called World War II
But he survived it
On his best days he forgets
The anguish for the loss of friends
The anxiety of the desire to be a hero
Possibly to be rewarded by burial
In a strange foreign land
On his best days he can forget the reality of battles
Even though every day
He must confront this soldier smiling back at him
This younger self that knows the whole story
Even pages and chapters the elderly man tries to forget
The elderly man now ignores the soldier while he shaves
Shaving was a craft and a tradition
Learned while he was a soldier
Donating his first whiskers to the US Army
Lest they be found in the inspections
And paid for with push-ups and KP
Picking up cigarette butts and scrubbing latrines
Even in battle he was expected to be groomed – and proud
A proud soldier is a better fighter
His general knew
As he grooms himself
He now thinks of Civilian life
The battles he fought after the great war
Notions of what-is-right stuck with him
Like a faithful soldier,
He still fought for what was right
Even when it was not the way to be rewarded
Now retired and more relaxed
He still applies pressure for what he thinks is right
And now he doesn’t have to worry about the consequences
– Like an immortal soldier
But with fewer arrows.
Everyday the elderly man meets the young soldier
Though no one speaks
The uniform triggers a response
The elderly man replays a newsreel in his brain
That covers five years and replays in seconds
When he steps from the shower
Again he sees his battle scars
A reminder of having escaped death
The enemies’ aim not quite good enough
In the moments before their own death
He tries to avoid these flash-backs
But the young soldier continues their repetition
Believing that as long as the elderly man
Can bear them this way
They will preserve a rational brain
Needed in the present daily contest
Where rules and penalties
Are different from war
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