Portside

Alternate History

By Bill Glose

When we rolled into Iraq,

newspapers predicted more

than half of us would die.

Eyes masked by tinted goggles,

we assumed stoic expressions

or else joked and slugged shoulders

embroidered with AIRBORNE tabs,

that narrow strip proclaiming

our shared religion. I remember

certitude settling into my bones

that I would not come back whole,

accepting that sour fact the same way

a losing wrestler shakes

his opponent’s hand before

the ref raises it in victory.

Looking back on my younger self,

so full of bravado

and jingoistic pride, I ponder

the multiverse theory of existence.

On another plane, perhaps the predictions

were correct, my corpse rolled

into an unmarked grave then covered

by a dune’s shifting sand. Then, too,

there would be another world

with another version of myself that

never went to war, never bargained

with God to swing his hammer

on someone else, never unleashed

the black dog within his heart

and set its gnashing teeth to work.

Bill Glose is a former paratrooper and author of three poetry collections, including Half a Man, whose poems arise from his experiences as a combat platoon leader. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Missouri Review, Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, and Atlanta Review. In 2011, he was named the Daily Press Poet Laureate. Other honors include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Award and the Missouri Humanities Council Award for Veteran's Poetry. More information is available on his website: www.BillGlose.com.