Jeff Brotemarkle

“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.”
― Siegfried Sassoon, Counter-Attack and Other Poems

“Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.”
― David J. Morris, The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

“You don't get a purple heart for being mentally shot.”
― J.M. Gillespie, Iraq and Back: A Journey with Depression

“We are part of what society can't bear to remember. Because if they really think about it, if they really look at us and realize the cost we've paid to keep them safe. They can't live with the guilt.”
― Barbara Nickless, Blood on the Tracks