Under my bed I keep a box of
treasures
three photographs, three medals, and some letters
On the stationery, handwritten, is a list of names
Blood brothers from the war games.
Adams, he was a
gunner.
He was our crew's fastest runner.
But we hold no races stateside-
Adams hasn't yet learned to run
on
prosthetics.
Or Harden, our
scout,
always the first to make it out.
He succeeded at that in more ways than one.
When he got home and tore his mother's house up
looking for his very first gun.
Or Johnny from
Jersey,
with the Van Gogh ear,
who went home through hospitals,
spent seven months in the
type of hospital
that we talk about the least
and is the only one out there
still
talking about peace
The medals.
One
purple, one
bronze, and one
silver.
The heart means that somewhere deep in my hip
I have fragments of a bullet
and explain my limp.
I never even saw him.
He was a sneaky fella.
But I figured out what
luck was real quick.
The first
star is the story
of the night that we were flanked
in the downtown maze of Bagdhad
and Troy, who thought he was a superstar
got us in to more trouble than we asked for.
I don't like to tell that story much.
So suffice it to say
we all made it out of that one alive.
We have not always been so lucky.
The other
star doesn't belong to me.
I keep it for safe keeping.
For Joey from
Boston who is afraid that he'll pawn it
He's not sure if it means what it should mean to him yet
and I say, I understand man,
Cause Joey can't forget the sounds of the desert
Joey can't forget the hands that he held
and the prayers that he said
that didn't work out right.
Joey is still fighting the fight.
And he knows where he's at
sleeping on friends' couches
and living out of his
ruck sack
but he still wakes up in terrors
still wakes up screaming save
me
And I want to save him
I want to save him but he is on his on
recon mission here
The photographs are different though.
This first one, in black and white,
That's my great-grandfather two days after
D-day.
With the boys that he told stories about
until the day he passed
at the age of 86,
still telling us about the sand in his boots
that he never could get rid of.
Even after 50 years of living in
Indiana
with no ocean for miles.
The second one, in faded color,
my father in
jungle greens
standing with his
m-16
at the age of 19,
so fresh, so clean.
Posed next to a palm tree,
like this was a vacation.
Just here seein' the sights, ma'
He wrote home in a letter
Said things were boring there
but about to get better.
The last one, myself,
in a crisp green uniform and posed
American flag at my back
beret on, ribbons at my chest.
Looking my absolute best
I used to be proud,
I remind myself,
to wear that uniform.
And I still am,
but in entirely different ways.