Child at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Karol Olesiak

being born in angst lends 

fodder 

for crusades; better to be unknown

as fragmentary proxy pieces of 

homer’s 

body than to be your self 

back in the cave: plato and 

socrates 

demanding blithe explanation

from Diothema: it is about what is 

good 

for rando humans

socrates a soldier: peloponnesian 

war

probably had PTSD and/or epiphany

child’s sources known 

to be 

born of war and circumstances

branded 

guilt complex for 

episodic fortune, beginning to cut

then there’s the shame of

being sliced by expectation

buying POWMIA 

t-shirt – 

ritualistically tattooing the guilt 

dog tags are meant to be 

jammed 

in a bodies’ teeth with a boot to mark 

neuro-typical bible names: 

data 

to identify through personality’s

cults where selves are 

shadows 

of the humans’ state sewn like 

peter pan’s first rendezvous 

with 

wendy in the london fog

after systems are done with you – 

nothing 

is left but a plaque

when there is nobody to 

claim 

your body’s remaining fictitious facts

all flags are symbolic of war; 

symbiotic 

with violent demonic pride  

all war memorials celebrate war: 

the named are sequential becoming

part of a larger book where their 

names came from originally

war simulacra  

pyrotechnics: 

grateful dead and hells angels

war can create nothing but suffering; 

weapons 

create nothing but death

child escorted by their 

sources 

demanding explanation from monument

these are fighters who perceived 

but 

nobody cared about them  

people want to be 

            loved 

but they can’t stomach loving

shiny boots, buckles, pompous hats: 

the changing of the guard

protecting sacred 

anonymity 

from fragile personhood

unmarked grave would 

      prefer 

to denote armistice than memorial day

uniforms are clown 

costumes 

in rando humans’ dark closets