Iron Mountain ski jump

Iron Mountain ski jump

Sunday, August 30, 2015

REPORT TO THE PAST-a poem

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter… ©

REPORT TO THE PAST

I am getting ready now to die.
I almost said that I am “preparing”
to die, but that sounds so stiff;
“Stiff” is not a word to use
in our declining days.
There are many words now not
to use, but I am grateful for those
we shared along the way.
This report would be longer,
but I have lost
so many other words…

John Robert McFarland
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.

They called them heroes. They said, “Thank you for your service.” Then forgot about them. Joe Kirk lost a leg. Lonnie Blifield lost his eyes. Victoria Roundtree lost her skin. “Zan” Zander lost his mind. Four homeless and hopeless Iraqistan VETS who accidentally end up living together on an old school bus. With nowhere to go, and nothing else to do, they lurch from one VAMC to another, getting no help because, like the thousands of other Iraqistan VETS who are homeless, unemployed, and suicidal, they do not trust the system and refuse to “come inside.” After another fruitless stop, at the VAMC in Iron Mountain, Michigan, a doctor is found dead, and the VETS are accused of his murder. Distrustful, strangers to America, to each other, and even to themselves, they must become a unit to learn who really murdered the doctor, so that they can be free. In doing so, they uncover far more, about themselves and about their country, than they dared even to imagine. Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BOKO, Black Opal Books, and almost any place else that sells books. $8.49 or $12.99 for paperback, according to which site you look at, and $3.99 for Kindle.

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