HARANGUE OF ONE THAT DIDN'T GO TO WAR Comments

I never saw the sweet lady with assyrian eyes
against the railings of a bridge
threading a needle
as if going to patch a river.
Nor lonely women waiting in the villages
for the war to end as if it were another station.
I never went to war, nor do I need to
since as a boy
I always asked how could I go to war
And a nurse, beautiful as an albatross,
A nurse that ran through large corridors
screamed with a bird's caw without looking at me:
You're already in it, boy, you're already in it.
I've never gone to the country of the hangars,
I've never been a standard bearer, hussar, mujik of some steppe.
Never did I travel in a globe across bristly countries
Populated by troops and beer.
I've never written, like Ungaretti, love letters in the trenches
I haven't seen the sun of death burning in Japan
Nor have I seen high-necked men
Dealing the earth in a card game .
I never went to war, not do I need to,
In order to see the soldiery washing the white standards
and later hearing them talk about peace
at the foot of the statues' legion.
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