Jessi M. Atherton

I don't usually call poetry "compelling," but I will here, because Jessi M. Atherton's debut collection, THE TIME WAR TAKES, is just that, and I read it straight through in one sitting. Although the poems are presented in no particular order, we learn the poet's mother was an addict, that she grew up in a mostly loveless foster home, and the army represented a fresh start, an opportunity. But, like so many women in the service, she was subjected to military sexual trauma, as well as unwanted advances from Iraqi men in the bazaars she visited there. But she keeps one memento from that tour, a small, hand carved quartz elephant, made specially for her by an Iraqi artisan.

Medically discharged for a twice-broken hip, Atherton carried her MST and PTSD home with her, conditions hard to cure, which have continued to plague her through marriage, motherhood, and divorce, until counseling has begun to give her some answers - and comfort.

"The time war takes" is not recoverable.

"We sit in VA waiting rooms
On psychologist and therapy couches
To talk, to feel, try to regulate
Waiting now, on diagnoses that remind us
That we are no longer young and
War never leaves." ("Hurry Up and Wait")

It took Atherton years to begin writing these things down. These poems are obviously a form of therapy. They are also damn good. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (més)