War Stories


war stories
we hear when Dad’s mind
starts to fail…
his skill at forging
weekend passes

my father
grabbing a blanket
speaks of winter…
long march
to Buchenwald

that job
in the Navy Mom 
never talks about…
notifying
the next of kin

forgetting
he just told us, Dad describes
the dress Mom wore
at Moonlight Gardens
just after the war





My Parents


Just ahead of me, on the left
my mother, wearing a white blouse,
shakes a little when she walks -
the stronger one, at eighty seven.

Next to her, my father
with round shoulders
folded over
like a wounded bird

steadies himself
with a webbed cane
feeling his way
slowly forward.

So they go
arm in arm,
side by side
toward the clinic door

like a butterfly
with one broken wing
limping to the gates of heaven -
all my love going with them


Credits:  "My Father" first published in Ribbons 9.1