We Have Lost Our Hearts

by Marc Mangel

Are the burns and scars of war

the blood and torn flesh and

ripped souls

ruptured hearts and shattered

dreams

not enough

that we have to sit here

as if in a coffee klutch

sipping tea

and cracking bisquits

and talk with

a callousness built froom

heard hearts

of “so and so who lost an arm”

and “the guy from —– died”

or “he lost both feet”

we

we at the home

we have lost our hearts

October 1973