Two Poems by Olivia Garard

Zombieland

yesterwar remained & littered

          xeriscape sown with neglect

warped by the whispers of

          victory’s unknown scars

unzipped tents corroded by

          Time’s acid guzzling the

shit (all the goddamn shit) &

          residue left over silhouetting

quivers emptied & forsaken

          pieces rotting beside

Ozymandias’s cold sneer—

          nail echoes to the wind

muezzin call vibrations ring

          latent life in objects

kept without occupiers:

          junkyard of the unimportant

installation of the inessential

          here we lie our things in the

Graveyard of Empires

          forever wars hoarding

endings from tomorrow’s

          decorated ghosts who exorcise

cries trapped in the broken

          bones gleaned from the scree

✽

Forever Wars

Consider Iraq: where

does it end? The gulf

where it begins.

Who cares but those

who cannot forget

Afghanistan.

✽ ✽ ✽

Olivia A. Garard served as an active duty Marine Officer from 2014-2020. She is a member of the Military Writers Guild and tweets at @teaandtactics. She has published poems with War, Literature & the Arts, Inkstick Media, War on the Rocks, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Collateral Journal.