I miss war where night might call
my right eye to act against me
and every city and county is an atelier
for what I did not inquire
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 11 August 1668
The speaker is a veteran who, startlingly, misses war. Not the violence itself so much as the way it gave life a sharp, simple shape. In war, night is dangerous and alert, and even the body seems to take sides: the right eye might "act against" him, as if his own senses could betray him.
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