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The Guilt Quilt |
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Slowly, painfully, in his mind he's built
Something
that resembles a patchwork quilt
From recollections of a
distant war �
From events he was never responsible for.
He sits there with his head slightly atilt
Methodically stitching his coverlet of guilt.
As mortars
chunk behind lowered eyes;
He sees tracers darting like
deadly fireflies
Crisscrossing in neon-bright, laser
lines
As he relives another firefight in his mind.
Curses and shrapnel fill the humid air;
Wasn't there a
song about rockets' red glare?
Exploding mortars and
small arms fire,
Thudding pulses and Charlie in the wire;
All the heart wrenching things he's seen,
Replaying in 3
D across his mind's screen.
He plies his needle with
something like verve
Despite the angst and his jangling
nerves
Hard at work, his eyes narrowed slits
He
diligently constructs his blanket of guilt. |
By Thurman P. Woodfork
Copyright 2010
Listed
March 11, 2011 |
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Author's Note: Dedicated to Garland Young,
who, at times, grows weary of sad songs.
About
Author...
Thurman P. Woodfork (Woody) spent his
Air Force career as a radar repairman in places as disparate as
Biloxi, Mississippi; Cut Bank, Montana; Tin City, Alaska; Rosas,
Spain and Tay Ninh, Vietnam. In Vietnam, he was assigned to
Detachment 7 of the 619th Tactical Control Squadron, a Forward Air
Command Post located on Trai Trang Sup. Trang Sup was an Army
Special Forces camp situated about fifty miles northwest of Saigon
in Tay Ninh province, close to the Cambodian border.
After Vietnam, Woody remained in the Air Force for nine more years.
Visit
Thurman P. Woodfork's site for more information
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