My uncle was a war veteran,
In another life and another time he was a decorated hero,
I used to be super proud and deathly afraid of him,
In his starched military fatigues and the long sleeve camouflage always rolled up,
I could never look at him when he was in uniform
But when he was out of uniform he became another guy
He’d toss me high into the air,
I would wonder if he would catch me,
He always did
With his faint smell of Berkely.
After a couple of Castle lagers chased by Berkley cigarettes
He would tell us that nobody wanted war,
You are too young to know what I mean but I never want to see another war again,
The government gave him a payout for his troubles in the struggles,
He built a house with a satellite dish,
And we would visit to watch satellite TV,
They say that’s what tanked the economy when they printed out money to pay out war veterans.
They promised that they would take care of the fees for his children and his estate would include a piece of land to farm on,
Promises, promises.
Government promises are like flowering trees which you only give thanks for after you harvest the fruit of the land,
Oh the land they gloriously fought and died for,
I was fiercely proud and deathly afraid when he came to visit and when I was being naughty in the way kids are naughty,
Like refusing to eat my dinner,
The threat would be he would put on his uniform and take me to war,
I knew enough to know,
Nobody wanted to go,
To war
But sometimes some body had to do it.
In primary school, I wrote an essay about him,
All of seven lines and I wrote the word soldier 4 times and each time a different kind of wrong,
Soulder
Solder
Souldeir
Soldeir
My 3rd grade teacher laughed at how I couldn’t be consistently wrong,
I don’t know why,
I just couldn’t spell the darn word,
Every. Single. Time.
It’s easy she said..
How to spell SOLDIER simply remember: Save Our Lives Death Is Ever Ready
.Save
…Our
….Lives
……Death
…….Is
……..Ever
………Ready
~B
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