My brother went to the desert—
Some called it war, others, a campaign,
Counterinsurgency,
Nation building.
He went, and I could not
Even imagine it:
Him, there.
Later, I’ll see a photograph
Of a man with a gun
Standing with other men with guns
In a desert.
And still,
I will not be able to imagine it:
Him, there.
But, my brother,
He has these blue-grey eyes,
Just like that man with that gun—
Him, there.
And I’ll wonder when it happened,
When he became so unknown to me
And how that can be
Because my brother,
He has these blue-grey eyes
That I can never not know.
Sarah Lass
Sarah Lass, 31, lives in Northampton, MA. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her writing has been published by the Briar Cliff Review, The Good Life Review, and Beyond Words International Literary Magazine. She recently won The Good Life Review’s Honeybee Prize in Nonfiction.