May 19, 2025
My latest short fiction, “And the Armies that Remained Suffered,” centers around a veteran of our country’s most recent war who’s drawn into a furor over a distant one. Clay is back in his hometown, making a prolonged recovery from a wound he suffered in Afghanistan, when a proposal to take down a Confederate statue triggers a backlash.
With his ex-girlfriend Patti leading the fight to “Save the Colonel,” Clay tries to stay neutral. However, pressure from her and others compounds both the stress of recuperation and Clay’s feeling of being in a rut. Eventually, he comes to a decision that changes his life and the town.
The title is a quote from Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Written in 1865 along with “O Captain! My Captain!,” this long free verse was an elegy for Lincoln, who Whitman greatly admired. I chose it because, unfortunately we’re still suffering. I hope you enjoy the story and will check out the other great writing in Tension Literary’s Resistance Issue.