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The haunting poetry of The Ghosts of Babylon is as near to the crucible of war as you can get without wearing Kevlar and camouflage.

Every war triggers the question—what’s war like? The Ghosts of Babylon offers eyewitness accounts of warriors who lost their innocence dueling in the sands of the Iraqi inferno or fighting in the chilling Afghan mountains or on the khaki-colored plains. Wounds enshrouded under the bandages of headlines and sound bites will never bridge the gap between soldier and civilian.

Only a soldier poet lays bare the honor and horror. Only a veteran reveals the physical and mental battles waged by the warrior caste. Only the war poet distills the emotions of those who tasted bravery and terror, love and vengeance, life and death. Based on the experiences of a U.S. Army Ranger turned private security contractor, these powerful poems capture the essence of Jonathan Baxter’s twelve military and civilian deployments.

Jonathan reveals the contradictory nature of deployment in a war zone—exhilaration, monotony, ugliness, and occasional beauty. From ancient times to present day, war poetry telegraphs a dispatch across the ages about the universal experiences of war—brotherhood and bereavement, duty and disillusionment, and heroism and horror. No history mirrors the brutal realities and emotions of armed conflict than the shock of war erupting from the warrior poet’s pen.

Jonathan resurrects the ghosts and gods of soldiers past. His poignant memorial to fallen brothers transmits the shadowy  presence and ultimate sacrifices of the coffined to the fortunate un-coffined. The Ghosts of Babylon strips away the cultural varnish of the ‘enemy,’ painting the bitter irony of every day lives caught in the crosshairs of terror, chaos, and death. From moving to startling to soulful, these masterpieces provoke you to think about the truths and consequences of those who risk their lives on the frontline of freedom—for you, their friends, and our country.

Author: Jonathan Baxter

Foreword: Leo Jenkins

Published: August, 2016

Available paperback.

POE023040 POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Places

BIO008000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military

HIS027180 HISTORY / Military / Special Forces

//NOTHING FOLLOWS

The DD-214: The “Holy Grail” of the out-processing quest, received upon separation. The discharge document that chronicles one’s military career, schools, awards, deployments, and time in service.

I receive my DD-214 as a reprieve

from the fat black woman behind the desk

and place it with the rest of my papers I have gathered

that were scattered like Easter Eggs

hidden around Soldier’s Plaza

in one blow-out extravaganza

The thick folder I hold here is my monument

to the acquisition of all my separation documents

Running in the rain through the street

hunting signatures like I once hunted HVTs

kicking down doors

blowing past bored civilian employees

chasing down that DD-214

And I got it. I’m done. Nothing Follows.

My DD-214 is pretty modest indeed

My six year career fits almost completely on one sheet

A few sentences spill over onto the second

bookended by: //NOTHING FOLLOWS

The six deployments fit into one box

a jumble of numbers, lines and dots

I sift through the dates

each recounting a different place in my life

That one was my first

That one there was the worst

We lost Ricky there

That one was my first to Afghanistan

the land where time began

That one was my favorite and

//NOTHING FOLLOWS

I hoist my giant folder

and make my way to the door and homeward

Clutching my beret, I head into the rain

trying to keep the papers dry inside my jacket

protecting the one and a quarter page testament

to whatever the past six years meant:

boredom, tedium, fear

anxiety, imposed celibacy

separation, sexual frustration

physical exhaustion, a few brief moments of fulfillment

those times you were God for a minute

and brotherhood

Tonight I’ll get drunk and moody with some of my buddies

Pitch myself a little pity party

For now I get in my car and start driving to a new horizon

Here’s the freedom that you dreamed of for the past few years

but why does the sky appear so empty now?

Empty like the second page of my discharge document

ending in that final and hollow statement:

//NOTHING FOLLOWS