All the Broken Pieces

Matt’s father takes him to another Veteran Voices meeting, and Matt listens to the veterans telling stories, with the most talkative men reminding Matt of “an opened fire hydrant / gushing words and tears” (126). The men recall fellow soldiers dying and children with explosives tied to their bodies and wonder how to “turn [the memories] off” (127). Matt wishes he could hear “soothing” music (129), instead of these “messy” words “like splattered blood” (129). That night, Matt thinks about what would happen if he told his own story. Would his mother still allow Matt to watch Tommy, he wonders, “or would she / pick him up / and push [Matt] away?” (131).

Coach Robeson misses three days of practice, and when he returns, he’s coughing and appears “thinner and tired” (133). He tells his team he went to the doctor about his lingering cough, and he’ll need to have treatments that might make him sick, so he can’t coach for a while. Matt “hope[s] it’s not good-bye” (134), and that night he asks his dad about Coach’s illness. His father says that “some cancers […] creep up on you / and invade so deep on the inside” that by the time they’re outwardly apparent, “it’s too late” (135).