The Green Man

A poem about war, mythology, and becoming part of the landscape.

Note: This poem began as an outtake from my chapbook, “Interrogation Days” (Dead Mall Press, 2022). I have since revised and expanded the poem considerably, but it’s still deeply rooted in that project. You can read or download the chapbook here, and you can find an interview I did about it here. A few notes follow the poem.

Clockwise from upper left: an image of growth overtaking an abandoned village; a stone image of the Green Man on a church; an aerial photo of the Green Zone in Baghdad; a depiction of Khidr, the Green One.

The Green Man

1.

If we didn’t…