“To The Survivors” By Elizabeth Keough McDonald In the throes of a language I struggle to understand, I hold my hands clasped tightly on my lap, as if they would flap about confused, or betray me. Triggers, perpetrators, intrusive thoughts, cognitive and exposure groups, the wretched leftovers of An Army of One and A Few Good Men. Buckle up, buckaroo, My heart the romp of a black steel toe boot. As one of the female veterans in the VA Women’s Trauma Clinic, I learn how to remember, so that I can forget. I want to speak the tongue of my country: the coded ache of what I carry. Part of me wants to embrace the sorrows that surround us. Shoulder for another woman what burdens her. Part of me does not want to know that any of us exist, because by giving us a name, I call out to myself. The hole wider than what I have closed. - from Homeward: poems
E
lizabeth Keough McDonald grew up in Thompsonville, Connecticut. She has resided in New Mexico since 1994 when she arrived in Gallup, New Mexico to work for the Indian Health Service. She is a disabled military veteran who served as a nurse during the Persian Gulf War. Elizabeth has published widely and received numerous writing awards. Most recently, she was awarded the 2008 San Juan National Forest Artist-In-Residence Program (Aspen Guard Station) award for her poetry. In her new book, Homeward: poems, Elizabeth’s poems speak about family, place, love lost and found, friendship and the experience of military service and its aftermath. The book features more than eighty poems with titles including “Bicycling Across Canada,” Route 66 Roundup,” “Aspen Eyes,” “The Gallup Wall,” and “Belly Redrocks.” Homeward is available on Amazon.com and proceeds from the sale are being donated to the Henderson House, a shelter for homeless women veterans and their children in Albuquerque.
56 gallupjourney@gmail.com
(Portrait photo b y Brian Leddy)