Vets Paradise

I remember the dude\
Met him at McCabe Center
In Austin/the Center composed
Of three groups: Vets, dudes released
From the Feds, and TAIP folks/all
Thrown together/incarcerated/in
rehabilitation

This dude was a Vet, and when
He talked about the Domicile in
Temple, his eyes lit up, passion
Looked like it was flushing his
Soul out his eyes\talking in
Animation, words gyrating,
Pure object language

Talking about how he was so
Close to going to the Vet home,
As if it was a celestial paradise,
And when he arrived there, God,
He’d really arrived\free of all
Terrestrial torments/arrived at
Eden, where all Vets go to
Prepare to die

And I used to cringe at his joyous
Proclamations, hoping that I would
Never end up there, one of them/

I sigh/within myself, at this boring
Pictorial/this possibility/my thoughts
Grew revolutionary/I’ve been in too
Many institutions to call any of them
Home, much less heaven/I hate them\
Their sterility/conformity/clinical bland-
Ness/in my mind/they are more like the far
End of a polar expanse on a continuum/
Something that kills spirit and lifeblood
And dreams—frozen in hypothermia
Somewhere in the Islands

© Christopher Bear Beam, M.A. June, 2009