Body of War

By Clifton Snider

For Tomas Young, 1979-2014

IAn Iraq War veteran,
enlisted after 9/11,
paralyzed from the nipples down
by a sniper,
died Monday, day before Veterans Day.

He survived ten years
after the bullet:
unrelenting pain, impotent.
He wrote to the war criminal president,
to his never-serving vice-henchman,
participated in protest
to prevent any 18-year-old
volunteering for the military.
IIHe announced for the benefit
of any interested lady
doctors had cured his
erectile dysfunction.

A blessing, his mother said,
was Tomas Young
every day of his 34 years,
every day of his profoundly
meaningful life
in a wheelchair.