Flash – Forward

Trigger warning – This poem contains imagery of death and discussions of war. Reader discretion is advised. This introduction is written in the third person to create a slight emotional distance from the work. The author’s experiences and memories of gender (roles), conflict and violence remain vivid, yet it is a conscious choice to keep the introduction brief, allowing the poem to speak for itself. In this piece, the author uses Mama to refer to their grandmother and Papa for their grandfather. These familial terms evoke the layered enactment of gender roles, the scars of war, and the unresolved internal conflicts that arise when one is too young to fully process the weight or the memory of such experiences. It is the author’s hope that the poem conveys these intricate dynamics without further explanation, leaving space for the reader to confront its truths on their own terms.