one boy, the brother
of a girl I barely knew
I still think of him
every last monday in may
his name somewhere on the Wall
For those of you who may not be familiar with the reference, this tanka-style poem is written about the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. In the 1960s, a girl in my church lost her older brother in that war. It was the closest that the conflict ever came to me, but I remember it to this day. The omission of certain letters normally capitalized in intentional; I wanted Wall to be the only one.
I haven't been posting much to OSI lately, and I thought I should just mention that this will probably continue. I'm currently working on a new poetry manuscript, and find that I want all my poetry energy for it. That doesn't mean I might not drop by sometime if the Muse permits, and I hope to join up again at some point. I will be continuing with this blog, just not joining in OSI. I'll miss you guys; happy writing to all!
Visit ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION for haiku and other poetic responses to this prompt.
Posts
