Drinking from a Helmet

“Drinking from a Helmet”

We don’t always think of the soldiers that die in battle until we really sit and think about them. We don’t think of the innocence lost or the final thoughts those soldiers may have in their abandoned helmets. “Drinking from a Helmet” shows how the innocence is destroyed in the young soldiers of war.

Sometimes we are away from things for so long that when we finally come out of hiding we can’t believe the things that have changed. Things that were there are no longer. During war, men would come out of their hiding spots to find everything blown away. Everything seemed to be destroyed along with their innocence.

In the middle of the battle a graveyard seen from the road seems so inviting. Some feel that they belong there. The graveyard seemed to “…advance after the troops…” trying to lure them to it with its order and decorative things. A water truck seen from across the graveyard calls out to them. When they finally get a chance to drink from the truck they find anything they can to drink from. They push and shove each other, only thinking of themselves. One soldier finds an abandoned helmet to use to drink from and begins to wonder about whom once wore it. He picks it up, not “…daring to take his off….” He puts water in it. He wishes he could get more.

He stares into the water in the helmet only to find his own reflection staring back at him. He sees how he has a “…skinny dog faced look…” and how he has been forced to grow up so quickly. His innocence of a young child has been ripped away. His face showing his “…life’s first all-out beard….” The beard growing wildly to try to escape his childhood, which was forced to go by too quickly and he has very little recollection of. The ripples in the water seem to be so innocent until disturbed by a force on the outside. Knocked away from its resting “…with a touch from all sides….” He thinks of the soldier’s life that was disturbed by the war, just as the movements of the soldier disturb the water.

The innocence of all the soldiers’ has been destroyed. The war destroyed so much more that just the surroundings that they could see. The soldier tries to picture the brave man that once held this same helmet. Thinking of how something could be so harsh. He begins to feel “…the difference