Through many a battle and half the world
Behind my unit I trudged and crawled.
Then home they brought me, all sick and mauled,
In a special train of the medical corps.

In a truck they delivered me to the door
Of my house, right on the threshold.
I stared and was dumbstruck by what I saw:
The smoke from the chimney seemed special.

The windows were bent on avoiding my eye,
And the lady inside didn’t greet me as kin,
Didn’t throw herself on my breast with a cry,
Just threw up her hands and hurried back in.

And the dogs started baying and tugging the chain
As I passed through the foyer’s tight squeeze,
And I stumbled on something that wasn’t even mine,
Felt the door, and went weak in the knees.

There sat at the table, where I used to sit,
The new man of the house, looking darkly.
And by him was a woman and why - that was it -
That’s why the dogs were barking.

Man alive, I thought, while I was pulling my weight
Under fire, denied all mercy and wisdom,
He moved things around my house in his way,
And changed them around as it pleased him.

While we prayed to God before every attack
That his covering fire might not fail...
But this deadlier blow was struck from the back,
And it stuck in the heart like betrayal.

I doubled up, peasant-like, with a low bow,
I summoned all my wilt and I whispered:
Well, excuse my mistake, I’ll be going now,
It’s the wrong house, friends, it must be.

What I meant was: May you have peace and love
In your house, and bread in the oven...
As for him, well, he didn’t even look up,
As though what had happened was normal.

The floorboards swayed as though bereft,
But I didn’t slam the door as I did once -
Only the windows opened as soon as I left,
And gave me a guilty look from a distance.