The Shaggy Dog

It comes from above and below.
Nature. Death. The Shaggy Dog.
Diogenes, what is our nature?
The dog says it is the spirit of the soul.
The spirit says it is the dog.
The soul says it is whole.
Dogmatic is the soldier.
Nature is the soldier.
Wholeness is incomplete without the soul.
Our nature is our being, so says the dog.

It comes from above and below.
Nature. Death. The Shaggy Dog.
Wonders of the soul, what if our nature.
The dog says it’s so, the soul says not so.
The spirit says the heart.
Are your eyes as alive as mine?
It is the nature of a Ranger.
So what does your soul look like? It is the nature of our being.
Are your eyes as alive as mine?
Because I only see death.
Hope, that is the nature of the dog.
The light that illuminates death.
I see death, I see hope; nature of the soul.

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Ryan Mimna lives in Philadelphia and works in the finance industry. He served in the U.S. Army from 2011 to 2015 and, after completing the Ranger pipeline, served with 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, including multiple tours in Afghanistan. After leaving the Army, he finished a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he began writing and later turned toward poetry. For The Havok Journal, he writes reflective pieces and poetry, often centered on fear, meaning, and the inner life.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.