Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Lucky Retirement - a labor day poem

Lucky Retirement

Labor Day 2013 - draft

- (eventually for publication in Faculty Voice)

Can’t believe I’m retired now,
rather than in ’67 when,
being sent to heaven
care of the USN was the option.

Can’t imagine I retired instead
of dying on one of those hospital beds
when they had no meds
in boot camp.  They’d sent
all supplies  to Nam.
We wiped our shit on walls
for lack of paper in the stalls.

How’d I retire when
my company was sent
to the USS Liberty
to be blown up at sea
by planes - each flown
by an Israeli?

Can’t see how I retired when
so many lost their home
and fortune and now spend
days as greeters in some
K-Mart, Wal-Mart nothing place
perpetually owning a smiling face.

The dice were nice
in the roll for me. 
Friends say ‘you deserved it.’
Others say ‘that bastard’s lucky.’

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