3495 Bailey

Every step, a set of ribbons stitched on a hat

Reminds you of where they’ve been

And where you’re at

Wedged in a chair, relating to peeling linoleum

Narcotics more present than the fiends holding them

We are the resolve and we are the end result

We are the hammers, the scalpels, and the old salts

We are more though and moreover

We are walking, talking textbooks when the war’s over

As rattled as we wanna be

As broken as they all believe

When they read our story

What will they take away?

Will they know of the triumphs?

Or will they pity our decay?

Written By Keith Walter Dow

October 11, 2021

Keith Walter Dow is a poet from New England where he is studying to receive his Master of Social Work. His newest book, Karmic Purgatory is available everywhere now and his other work has been published in Fact & Memory, In Love &...War: The Anthology of Poet Warriors, Coffee or Die Magazine, and OAF Nation. He is the co-founder of Dead Reckoning Collective, a publishing company exclusively working with military veterans to share their stories in all written genres. He is a devoted father and a partner to the essayist, Jessica Danger.