Page 28 - vera-kilgore-heilig-her-poetry-lives-(2017)-h-morris-williams-and-marie-law-haire

Vera Kilgore Heilig: Her Poetry Lives (2017) H. Morris Williams, Marie Law Haire

Query To A Ghost

You were almost too old;
Your son was barely old enough,

But both of you were wearing Navy blue.
You watched a group of youngsters playing war games,
Mowing each other down with dime-store tommy guns.

“I hope they’ll never play that game for real,”
You told me solemnly.

“That’s why my son and I are fighting now,
And when we’ve won

Those boys will never go to war.”
Was it a comfort to you as your ship went down

To think about those little boys
You were so sure would not know war?
Some of them did see action in Korea,

Police action, that is. We didn’t call it war.
Now tell me, Sailor, if you could come back

As you were then,
What would you say to those boys’ sons

Who burned their draft cards on their way to Canada?

Like, Real Cool, Man

I as a teen

Was a young adult,
Having made the scene
Before the cult

Of Teenagers arose,
But a rose is a rose as everyone knows.

By this I mean
That the end result

Is much the same
Whatever the name.

24 www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: ED745F4E-57ED-4437-80F0-E2F47F5F57AC