WARRIORWriters: Reflections

By Maggie Martin

On Saturday, September 1, we hosted WARRIORWriters: Write to Heal Workshop at Under the Hood.

It was really great to have a chance to slow down, take a minute to breathe, and put pen to paper. So often we are rushing around and stressing out over things that have to get done so it was really valuable to break away from that and embark on some creative exploration together. I really love to write and to share with my brothers and sisters but it never seems to make the list of priorities, until we make it a priority. That’s what Warrior Writers does for me.

This piece came from a writing prompt Aaron Hughes created for us. We read the poem Viet Nam-February 1967 by W.D. Ehrhart. We talked about the poem for a while and then we each chose a line out of it to write our own piece with. Here is mine:

Children Under Occupation

A ragged child stares at passing soldiers,
a band of babies brown skin brown dust dirty feet,
a ragged child stares at passing soldiers,
passing soldiers mingling at the market marking danger with pointed weapons.

A ragged child stares at passing soldiers,
“Mista Mista!” and me “noooo Misses”.
What a hero I am here in your market in your country,
I’ll give you candy and a stuffed rabbit I won’t point my weapon at you- that must make us friends.

A ragged child stares at passing soldiers,
a ragged child stares at passing soldiers,
a ragged child stares at passing soldiers,
for 10 God-damn years!
A ragged child grows up watching passing soldiers,
arrogant and self righteous,
disrespecting, not understanding,
not knowing.

A ragged child becomes man,
becomes woman,
has no memories that don’t include
passing soldiers pissing on their homes.

Warrior Writers is a project that brings soldiers and veterans together to write and make art about our experiences in the war and in the military. By recording our experience we engage in the healing process of art-making and we record our personal truths of what it is to live through the military in a time of war.