Fourth of July

Cousin Billy lived across the backyard fence.

We’d play army in the Summer,

crawling through bushes and back yards

our parents did not own.

Both of us wanted to be Vic Marrow

so we took turns in charge of our combat platoon.

High school came and went.

Billy went off to Vietnam,

came home a veteran against the war.

He went to school on the GI Bill,

became an architect, moved out east,

rode the train into the city for work.

He got married and got divorced,

because some things aren’t worth the fight.

McNamara’s War keeps on giving.

In a wheelchair shaking with Parkinson’s,

he fights alone with Agent Orange.

A friend says he made a video

for the VA about his life challenges so maybe

those who come after him won’t give up the fight.

Somewhere, in an alternative universe,

Billy and I still hide under a neighbor’s weeping willow

hoping the enemy will not find us.

While in the leaves cicadas drown out the sound

of distant fireworks celebrating our freedom.

7-6-2024