Post-Surreal Stress Disorder
By Chuck Von Nordheim


Reality war veterans suspect

sensory input; an easy attack

many enemies opted—resurrect

remembered moments, then turn them to black

horror by subverting their foundation—

make rain fall up, let rocks grow eyes that blink,

taint past love with perverted causation.

One warrior sits by a skating rink

years after the war’s end, disbelieving

the cold, the white ice, the pretty ladies,

according it an illusion’s weaving

soon to be warped to the heat of Hades.

When inner space is where combat troops tread,

there’s no going home, not even in your head.


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Chuck lives outside of Dayton, Ohio. He served 22 years in the USAF. His work recently appeared in Every Day Poets and Nexus.