The Double.

Fisher, Lisa Gray

 The Double
    A young soldier, ordered to search
   a farmhouse, kicks open the door
   with pistol cocked. Flattening his back
   to the wall, as he's been trained to,
   he jumps inside and smacks straight
   into his double: a young soldier,
   white-faced, weapon aimed at him.
   In the shock-pause before they blow
   each other to bits, the first man nearly
   fails to recognize his reflection. The
   hallway mirror does not recall to him
   anyone he's been. What he sees is the
   gun pointed at his head, his own gun,
   death, the enemy, well-armed.
   My father told this story of how he
   almost killed himself, adding that
   in any conflict we come to resemble
   most closely those we oppose, the
   essence and the irony of war.
   Afterward, he carried his alien
   reflection, that alter-image, with him
   into battle, knowing himself doubled,
   and knowing the double, one. 

LISA GRAY FISHER'S poems, short fiction and essays have appeared in a variety of journals. Her debut novel, Full Body Wag, was published in 2011. Her father, J. Glenn Gray, based his renowned philosophical work, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, on his service in World War II.