The Story Of A Man's Unending Nightmare - he lost his sight, speech, hearing and sense of smell

A soldier fighting in a war and mortar blows off his face. War has plunged army soldier Joe Bonham into an unending nightmare. Hit by an artillery shell in World War 1, Joe has suffered injuries that have all but erased his humanity: he's lost his sight, speech, hearing, and sense of smell. But he still has the ability to think and remember, which, in the end, may be more a curse than a blessing. Trapped in his body, Joe realizes there's only one way out of his misery. It is death.

“ I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up I cannot see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death 
Oh please God, wake me

Back in the womb it's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God, wake me
Now the world is gone, I'm just one
Oh God, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell"

Joe Bonham lies injured in a hospital bed. While conscious, Joe thinks back over scenes from his past: the night of his father's death and the night before he felt his girlfriend Kareen to go to World War 1. Before his family moved to Los Angeles, Joe grew up in Shale City, a small town in Colorado. He remembers small town memories and images, such as the food his mother would prepare, the first time an airplane came to Shale City, and the night he lost his girlfriend, Diane, to his best friend, Bill Harper.

The narrative shifts from the past to the present as Joe thinks regretfully about his decision to join a war that was not any of his business. Slowly, Joe begins to realize that he has been severely injured and treated in a hospital, which is where he currently lies. Joe gradually feels that his arms and legs have been amputated. Furthermore, he realizes that he cannot speak, see, hear and smell because he no longer has a face - only mask covering where his face used to be. Joe wonders bitterly about the doctors' motivation for saving him at all.

Joe continues to live inside his head, reliving memories and terrorised by nightmares. He wonders how he can even tell whether he is awake or asleep. Joe thinks about his father kept beautiful gardens in a vacant city lot and fed his children well, although he was never officially a success because he never made any money. Joe continues to think bitterly about the foolishness of fighting and dying in a war that had nothing to do with him, and about the deceitfulness of abstract words like “liberty, " democracy, freedom and decency. He is the among millions.

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