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The Hero (poem)

By Paul Hellweg

A long time ago
I received the Purple Heart
and
two Bronze Stars,
strange,
seeing as how
today
I have difficulty
summoning the courage
to face the cruel
emptiness
of doing
a load of laundry
or making
a piece of toast.

- Paul Hellweg

Paul Hellweg has a bad case of official, government-sanctioned, VA-approved PTSD. He is a member of both Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and he has recently devoted his life to speaking out against all war.