Boxes

Watching the Invictus Games I was inspired by the stories of incredible people who have experienced and continue to experience, horrendous pain and suffering with such determination and dignity.

I have my own challenges, we all do, but listening to the testimonies made by people with PTSD and other invisible injuries spurred me on to write the following poem. I can’t advocate this approach, but it is the approach I used until I realised that I was using cardboard boxes, and they crumble with age. At that point I talked, and found hope…
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Boxes

Sometimes,
Just occasionally,
a scent,
a shadow in the periphery
let's slip a memory
that leaves me stunned.
Numbed.

Pandora had one box,
I have many;
rubble,
teachers - predators,
torture, beatings, burnt feet,
silent screams in the night
choked back, concealed
and children taught to kill.

We're told a peek loosed all evils
yet one remained confined.
With Elpis* tightly locked away
I'll strive to keep my boxes shut,
for,
if I were to lift a lid,
there'd be no hope for me.

John Carré Buchanan
22 May 2016

* In Greek mythology Elpis was the personification and spirit of hope or expectation,

Abandoned

A recent study concluded that one in four homeless people in the United Kingdom are ex service personnel. This result is made more disturbing when it is set alongside the facts that there are 2,500 ex-servicemen in prison at the current time and it is estimated that about one in ten prisoners has served in the Armed Forces.

Such a high proportion of ex-servicemen among the homeless and prison population is a clear indication that the Military Covenant, that those who have fought for their country should receive the best possible health and welfare support for the sacrifices they have made, is not being met.

I wrote the following poem to in an attempt to describe what ex-servicemen might feel like when they find themselves in this situation.

Abandoned

Saddened by loss
He lived out his days writing
Gone were the races
Gone were the family
Gone the faculties
Gone the camaraderie
Where used to be so strong
All is now gone
The heart – a stone

John Carré Buchanan
14 May 2011