F. N. Wright, US

 

Free Verse   First Love   first grade after school he trips her. she cries out & he bolts for home but guilt stops him. he returns to school to face his teacher. "Why did you trip Shirley?" she asks. "I like her," he replies. The teacher stifles a smile & says, "That is not how you show someone you like them." he nods his head yes. the next day he apologizes to her but she is unforgiving. the years go by & in high school they begin "going steady." she has not forgotten the day he tripped her in first grade but has forgiven him. they marry six months after graduation & he is drafted & sent to Vietnam. five months later, Shirley is four months pregnant, when she receives the telegram informing her she is also a widow.     Suppertime I The young boy walked down the dusty eastern Kentucky back road to the cabin he lived in with his parents & younger sister. it was 5 miles from school to home & his only pair of shoes were tied together by the shoelaces & slung around his neck to save their soles. as he walked up the path to the cabin he was surprised when his beloved dog failed to greet him, tail wagging. "Where's Blue?" he asked as he entered the cabin. "I imagine he's around here somewhere," his father sullenly mumbled. he sat down at the kitchen table his mother's washed out blue eyes looked sadder than usual as she placed the food on the table. it wasn't rabbit stew they'd be eating for supper tonight. II after placing the pot on the table his mother ran outside, leaned over the porch railing & heaved her guts out. When she reentered the cabin she said, "Bill, I don't feel good. I'm going to bed." the young boy & his sister waited for their dad to dole out portions of the food into their bowls but instead he said, "This don't smell right. Probably bad meat. I'm gonna feed it to the hogs. Danny, get 2 cans of beans & 3 hotdogs. We''ll eat store bought food tonight." After his dad had thrown the stew to the pigs he sliced up the hotdogs, put them in a pot with the beans & placed the pot on the stove. store bought food! only served on Sundays after church! that Christmas Danny received a new puppy he promptly named New Blue. III at the age of nineteen the young boy Danny was at a place called Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. As the NVA shelled them for the third time that day Danny, Billy & Frank were in their hooch. "Shit! Frank bitched, Ham and motherfuckers again! Third time in a row." "Me too, " Billy mumbled, "makes me hungry for the monkey on a stick I had in the Philippines my last liberty on my way to this fucking hellhole." "Shit, you dumb fuck," Frank chortled, "It was probably dog meat." Danny began throwing up when he remembered the night his mom had ran outside & began heaving after fixing supper. a stew his dad had fed to the hogs. He wondered how New Blue was doing, praying his younger sister was taking good care of him, as she had promised to do.