Veteran

Below my black, velvet painting

the one of the two dogs playing cards

hangs an honorable discharge.

No bigger than an IPOD, no smaller

than a metal tray from which many

meals were taken.

I didn't do much.

Got in trouble.

Laid on my stomach in

the belly of a rocking frigate

somewhere on the Atlantic.

Posted Ethridge Knight poems on

bulkheads and empty, ideological

shower stalls. Got busted to E-3 for

thinking myself a revolutionary.

Wore my US Talisimu to sick bay

where Doc forced a three inch

syringe in my rusty a*s to stop

my dick from dripping.

I ain't nobody's hero. Not now

at least. But this morning the

cat saluted me. Stood silent

and alone while the can twisted

and opened to a new breakfast.

On this,  another glorious American

morning.

Reviews

[Cory Barrett]

Dana, yet another moving write for a day of a million mixed emotions. A day for those willing.

[Delmar Cooper]

Too many drugs. Cats salute nobody.

[K. Louis]

Hell yes! That's what I'm talkin' bout!

[Emily B]

you are always my hero! especially when you are revolutionary

[jacob erin-cilberto]

a perfect veterans day poem....reminding us that purple hearts, and medals of honors have a strong meaning when bestowed on our heroes, but that all who serve, even those only recognized and saluted by the cat, should be remembered and appreciated...
we all served in our way...and many of us are veterans of other kinds of wars...like the war of life that we survive, well enough to greet another breakfast...and sip on that coffee of memory.