Deployment, 2020

The morning to dress, each soldier

helps the other into surgical gowns

and respirators before making the descent

step by step, down to the ward where both

the self-committed and confined weep

for what can’t be amputated or restored

on an operating table. Instead of lives,

that was the summer soldiers took away

memories. Don’t worry, sergeant assured

us. Most of them are already gone.

Terence Hawes is a writer from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. While currently studying to become a clinical psychologist at McGill University, he writes in his spare time. Terence is a thirteen-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, having served as a reservist in the infantry. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in Yolk and Acta Victoriana.