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Silencing the Dead
No
longer
Do we see the dead.
No airport services for those
Who died for us, or as officials say,
For freedom.
There was an era when the dead
Were given air time and a sacrament
Of flags,
Before the hearse took them
Beyond the truth
Of lenses.
A soldier’s corpse,
You see,
Is not quite silent.
It has a thing or two to say
Of policy.
Ay, there’s the rub.
From hero to embarrassment
In just a bullet’s length.
No final photo op
For you, my friend.
Unlike the poet, you will go
Into that good night
Quietly.
Obscurely borne away,
Your life
Will never come to mind, not even
In the silence
Of the voting booth.—Alan L. Soffin,
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, taught at
Michigan State and Temple universities.
An award-winning private film-maker, he
is retired and writing on philosophy of
religion plus teaching at the Center for
Learning in Retirement, Delaware Valley
College. His article "Why God
Can’t Speak to Humans" was
published in the Spring 2003 issue of DreamSeeker
Magazine.
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