Troubling as the rash of young veteran suicides is, and we need to be extremely troubled by it as a nation -- troubled enough to fundamentally believe that there's a problem that needs fixing -- and it isn't the veteran, but how he or she is treated as expendable by the same system that sends them to war -- here's a wonderful poem by one of the famous WWI war poets, Siegfried Sassoon, that speaks to the essence of the topic:
"Suicide in the Trenches"
| I KNEW a simple soldier boy | |
| Who grinned at life in empty joy, | |
| Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, | |
| And whistled early with the lark. | |
| In winter trenches, cowed and glum, | 5 |
| With crumps and lice and lack of rum, | |
| He put a bullet through his brain. | |
| No one spoke of him again. |
|
| You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye | |
| Who cheer when soldier lads march by, | 10 |
| Sneak home and pray you’ll never know | |
| The hell where youth and laughter go. |
--Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). from Counter-Attack and Other Poems. 1918.
Editor's Note: For a link to Sassoon's poetry on Amazon, click here. We will also increasingly be listing the work of war poets in a book sidebar as they're mentioned or discussed (see right hand side of page). Oh, and P.S. -- no ageism intended or implied. The suicide of older veterans is also tremendously troubling. Each life taken is a profound loss to society, whether old or young.
