On Hearing News of An Old Friend

Main Street, Bel-Et-Quin, Somalia, Spring, 1993

On Hearing News of An Old Friend
for: S. L.

by
Tom Roach

My wife just told me
you have left Afghanistan
undoubtedly by the skin of your teeth.

I remember when we first met
it was in Somalia, another of the world’s
fine sunny places suited for a vacation.

You were not there for a holiday
you were there to make a peace
your soldiers armed to do the job.

Yours were a tough and ruthless crowd
trained more to fight than police wild streets
where bullets flew from hidden guns.

It was a place where children played
a game of snatching
sunglasses from off a soldier’s nose.

While at night, others crept
with knives between their teeth
and hatred in their hearts.

The poet Housman said:
“the world has still much good,
but much less good than ill”.*

You were the good!
The council met, schools reopened
women shopped and farmers tilled their fields.

The heavy load, it wore you down
for truly, I have never met
a man so tired as you.


*    A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, stanza 62.