but what can we do?

1943

They toughened us for war. In the high-school auditorium
Ed Monahan knocked out Dominick Esposito in the first round

of the heavyweight finals, and ten months later Dom died
in the third wave at Tarawa. Every morning of the war

our Brock-Hall Dairy delivered milk from horse-drawn wagons
to wooden back porches in southern Connecticut. In winter,

frozen cream lifted the cardboard lids of glass bottles,
Grade A or Grade B, while marines bled to death in the surf,

or the right engine faltered into Channel silt, or troops marched
—what could we do?—with frostbitten feet as white as milk.

—Donald Hall


So. This poem is epic. I really like how every two lines have both a line about home and a line about war. They relate war to everyday life, but show that life at home is never going to prepare them for war. At the beginning they think that they are being prepared for it. At the end they realize that they will never be able to do anything for home. All the can do is wait and watch and hope for the best. They use everyday work to show that they will always be trying to do something to help. oh hey. Conrad. you have to immerse yourself in your work to not let the reality get to you.
score:
Me: 1
FW: 0