PHYLLIS BECK KATZ, POET
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POEMS/ Walking Off the Wars

appalachian trail.
Walking Off the Wars

They hike to free their bodies
and their minds, those damaged 
veterans home from the grip 
of savage wars – Vietnam, Iraq,
Afghanistan, – wars raging on inside
them; they hike to purge themselves 
from things they saw and things they did, 
trudging through the long tough miles 
on the Appalachian Trail from Georgia  
up to Maine, following the footsteps 
of Earl Shaffer, in 1948 first veteran 
to “thru hike” end to end, the trail 
“a long green bridge” to peace.  
They go to wash away the stains 
of battle, their journey a “Warrior Hike,” 
rite of passage from Springer Mountain 
to Katahdin, months of dirty socks 
and worn out boots, wet sleeping bags, 
of sudden snow storms, ice and mud, 
of heat and bugs, soldiers fighting 
a different war, struggling to reclaim 
their lives, bombs and bullets left behind.
Gone are the rattle of guns, thunderous
boom of roadside bombs, cries of the wounded, 
stench of death and decay. Only bird song, 
rare voice of another hiker, blowing winds,
creaking branches, pounding rains, thumping 
of their own weary feet break the silence
in those endless hours of slogging on and on, 
lost in days of solitude, hoping to be found.

This poem appears in the September 2014 issue of Oberon.


Copyright 2018, Phyllis Beck Katz. All rights reserved.