Tim O’Brien Blog #2

Response to “The Things They Carried”

He had to let her go,

He had to live.

Burned in a foxhole,

Martha’s letter lie.

She belonged to another world,

Far beyond his own.

She did not love him,

Signed letters Love Martha.

His love was too much for him,

He felt like he couldn’t move, he wanted to sleep inside her

He wanted to know her.

Her eyes grey and neutral,

Not of flies or swollen black and bruised.

They were not love letters,

This was not Mt. Sebastian,

It was a world where men died from carelessness.

Without negligence and guilt,

He carried his men.

He had to let her go,

He had to live.