Being There

Polaroids of boys in uniform, U.S. Marine Corps., Winter '58,
Vern, Don, Chuck, Jim.

We were just fucking around then, war was done happening.

The desert heat in the Spring of that same year.

Eisenhower running oval laps around his office.

Running drills.

Getting on and off boats.

Driving up the coast on the weekend.

A Lance Corporal hitch-hiking home to a one-bar town.

Your friends saying that  Canton girls are still easy .

Reassuring your parents that  we are just fucking around, war isn't happening .

Urgent transmission: Army 22, Navy 6.
Army wins.

The foam darts stuck to the ceiling of the chapel.

Defense Department:
Peace (pēs) – (noun) the period between war or other hostilities.

Forty-five year old pictures.

I'd prefer to look at other things.

My sixty-year-old father reaching over to his ex-Marine nurse pointing to the air tube in his throat, asking for it to be gone,

the ex-Marine nurse looking over at you and saying,
no, sir, I can't do that.

Me, not being there.