strangers on a line
orders called out urgently
the wind is too cold
Red White and Blue Glare
Independence Day
In a military town
Filled with fireworks
Real and metaphorical
Sitting on the patio
With the family
As rockets burst
Beautiful melancholy
Emotional displays
Remembering our freedoms
Our victories
And our losses
Sipping away the evening
In brilliant flashes
Celebrating America
Understanding the cost
Different types of Boom
There are deflagration and detonation
which differ in how they shock
That’s pedantic, if not too frantic
and I do not mean to mock
Incendiary times need cooling down
with caution and celebration
To avoid a sad conflagration
have your fireworks out of town
Ephemeral
I do not have a future
I only have a past.
The few things I’ve accomplished
Were never meant to last.
Managing Expectations
The movers come tomorrow.
I wipe January’s to-do list from the white board
We never got around to updating.
The plans we made linger,
The ghosts of the great potential the new year
Laid out before us.
Each tick mark faithfully declining
Until, then, the halt of forward momentum. The
Days that stopped.
Perhaps next year, next duty station
Next month, next KD billet, next school year, next race,
Next rest stop, next tick mark on the list.
The movers come tomorrow.
I’ll call you from the road.