The Great War

[flaccus]

A broken appointment is a loss to everyone.
~Planned Parenthood

Every tall girl who comes through that door
comes through it closed and silent
well-trained in this silent war of nerves
faces repeated and reflected, wary and familiar
doughboys sharing a cigarette before dawn.
Anxiety, compassion, fret. Pragmatism.
Forethought. Plainspeaking and terror.

The door opens, the door closes.
Bombproof faces watch
(through double panes)
cherry trees flushed with spring
pinned down by the mullions’ reticle.
History weighs heavy on us here
pressed into the walls
like gentle casts of shoulders
left behind after the shells have fallen.