The Dead Lion
Of all the grim journeys a soldier must face, none may be more daunting and unpredictable than returning home from war. If accompanied by great personal loss, the tension, anxiety and uncertainty of survival never give way completely to normalcy. Anger, alienation, and feelings of helplessness remain. This is the emotional terrain of “The Dead Lion,” which tells the story of a young, Army vet raging against the futility and moral complexity of what happens when the enemy we face is inside us.
Hailstorm
Rook left the barracks and headed out onto the blacktop where a crowd of twenty or thirty protesters had gathered on this bright sunny day and were lined up along the open field on the opposite side of the street holding their signs aloft and hooting and caterwauling when they
Grief Wrapped in Guilt Wrapped in Loss
The two women were talking to one another across the counter when the phone rang. Excuse me, Edith said and answered it. Okay, sure. Okay. Yes, well can’t you make them? They can’t tell you anything? What’s their number then, I’ll call them myself? Hello? Sorry,
Misery Loves Company
After he’d left the CO’s office John David spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at a bar amongst the couple of other lone warriors scattered about, like buoys bobbing in the dark current, their shoulders slumped but for the occasional sigh and despite there being nothing but
