Daniels

joked that before he joined he had long hair, smoked copious
weed, played a lot of Call of Duty 
but wanted to know what combat was actually like. His eyes 
were sharp points when he looked up, 

eyes that had found out. His neck, peppered with scars
from the explosion that took his friends. His stories,
the brutal things he’d seen and done—Why
send a Marine to clear a room

when a grenade will do? But what I remember best:
at the birthday ball, from a shambling, stumbling group 
of uniformed drunks, how he guided his date
to an open bit of floor where, beaming, they began to waltz. 

ZACH JEPSEN

Zach Jepsen is a North Carolina poet living outside of Charlotte with his wife and daughter. He earned his master’s degree in poetry through Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers and is a member of the Charlotte Lit community. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.