VA

by | Jul 3, 2012 | Poetry

Aim for the Buddha!

boys playing

war in the yard

 

 

 

young men’s pictures  hang over old soldiers  in wheelchairs

 

 

 

Pearl Harbor headlines

still startle

ghosts in the halls

 

 

snowless winter

old soldiers

fighting for breath

 

 

 

waning moon—

each visit less

of him left

 

 

 

saying goodbye

he calls me my sister’s name

one last time

 

 

 

thinnest moon—last look from my father’s cold blue eye

 

 

between earth and sky

will I pass my father

among white clouds?

 

 

 

only our dad could

enjoy his own autopsy—

still doing science

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Luis Argerich on Flickr

About The Author

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Barbara Ungar’s sixth book, After Naming the Animals, is forthcoming in June 2023 from The Word Works. Her prior book, Save Our Ship, won the Snyder Publication Prize from Ashland Poetry Press and a Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association, and was a Distinguished Favorite at the Independent Press Awards. She has work forthcoming or recently published in Scientific American, Crazyhorse, and Small Orange. Her work has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bulgarian. A professor of English at The College of Saint Rose, she lives in Saratoga Springs, New York. For more details, see www.barbaraungar.net .