VETERAN’S DAY Due to some mistake in paperwork they stick a Veteran’s flag on your grave. You were never a Veteran. You left the army when your father full of cancer, was dying. He saved you from war. But, each year we come back and see the flag waving above your stone name. We’ve gotten used to it. We’ve concocted imaginary war scenarios and battle scenes, in our heads. Anyway it helps us locate your tombstone. Ten years may have passed since your departure, still, sometimes when we circle the lot in search of your header we think that maybe (for a split second) that you hadn’t really died, that we were just circling in confusion, swimming in Jewish last names and marble until- Ah! we spot that proud flag waving away in the sunlight marking you off from the rest and confirming your place in this world. J Pastiloff |
