I.
In America in 2022,
A veteran's son
Burns off his skin cancer
Lesions at home
With a soldering iron.
Rich men make millions in a day.
II.
Memorial Day 2006
for my parents
All of the dead, some in uniform, parents, old, children too young.
Holes in families, empty houses. Shadows on people. A name in rock.
A person remembers someone. A town, a life.
Countries give speeches. Speeches about symbols.
Speeches, only words. Too far away to know.
And I can't tell you. You had to see them. In their towns. Both sides.
How nice it was for you to give credit to your artistic betters who wrote them. A typical schmuck Sparky touch.
ReplyDeleteAs that would be me, a typical Simps comment.
DeleteOh yeah right. You wrote those poems all by yourself. I mean, unlike your blog, they're in English.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI posted a slightly different version of the second one at my first blog OLVLZL on Memorial Day 2006 and a revision of it at Echidne's blog after that. The first one I wrote yesterday, about a week after I found out a guy in this town is doing exactly what I describe in it. He is, in fact, a veteran's son, I didn't want to tell him I was writing about it or I'd have asked him if he had been in the service, as well. I think he may have been a volunteer fire fighter when he was younger.
Delete