gray skies, purple skirt.

I mean, the last time I really dated someone;

when everyone exploded for "Hogan's Heroes"

and the gland beneath my fathers throat bulged loose.

And the delusional moonflowers who think of old wars

like brides they tore lymph nodes from and beat

before they loaded him in the Ford station wagon

 with the wood

grained dashboard for dialysis in those days before he died.

 No sun ever rose over Dachau. And over

Auschwitz the make shift, unsustainable 

apportioning of representative rays bore down on bloody

crushed backs.

No one wore a purple skirt.

Reviews

[Robert Trakofler]

I was raised by a very military family service was a right of passage I grew up watching all of the movies and heard the stories of my families involvement in the various "theatres" of war. My dad is also history nut so I got in on both sides... however none of my family ever glorified war never heard a good thing from my various uncles and grandparents when they spoke of it. It was just a matter of service to them and I can say that universally. when you say purple it resonates to me the religious garb of easter of rebirth which reminds me of my uncle of whom was once in seminary but went to war serving under patton he told me of a story once liberating a death camp he shot and killed an officer and took his sidearm as a trophy that i now own the dichotomy of him has always been very prevalent in my mind I once asked why he didn't finish seminary and he said He wasn't good enough it wasn't until much later
did i understand what he meant when I found a jar of teeth he must of "liberated" from the German soldiers he killed. poignant write Dana Look what you made me think of

[h d e rushin]

Wow Bad. I buried my brother who passed on Oct. 13th from opioid exposure. And you know what that means? He too was a veteran and when he came home, a different guy than when he left us, I would show him pictures of how he use to laugh and enjoy this world as it was. What is it about war Bad? Is it a greater calling? The ultimate bonding experience? Is it the fun like what George C. Scott was having while he portrayed Patton in that Oscar winning movie? I think it may be all of those things while it destroys people and the person pointing a gun at you. Thanks brother for your wonderful story/ look what you made me think of.....dana

[Robert Trakofler]

I am so very sorry about your brother Dana! I lack the poetry to express the sadness I feel at the loss of our brothers and sisters to the corporate genocide of opiates

[Beccy]

T is right, there is no glamour in war, just reluctant heroes, interlaced, sadly, with those who revel in conflict.

I had only vaguely heard of Hogan's Heroes, (before my time,) so I read up on it via Wikipedia. Best thing I can say, is that it was stereotypical of it's time.

We are a strange species are we not.

Beccy.

[h d e rushin]

it's because we really don't understand it. (war) with a all volunteer force. No draft. No selective service so nothing really to protest about. the only real glamour is in beauty, not in death....thanks love. I got my internet service restored...finally... dana

[Terpsichore]

We keep on glamorizing war and no-one will ever get to wear a purple skirt.

Supposed there is some merit in the humour of it all though; keeping the spirit uplifted and all that jazz.

'Delusional moonflowers,' I like that.

T

[h d e rushin]

thanks love. I got my internet access restored, finally.there is no glamour in war because there is no glamour in dead bodies...jut romanticization / thanks for your kind words my friend...dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

no war is ever good...and no, the sun did not rise over either of those places...and heaven is not waiting on anyone who partook in anything like what happened in those places...ugh on Hogan's Heroes...i guess i was one of the few who didn't like that show.
and prisoners of war didn't produce such laughs.
this is intense...and wow, i remember those station wagons...the wood sides...
the fifties and early sixties...
when cars had character.
j.

[h d e rushin]

thanks Jacob...it was my fathers favorite show of the 70's. Yet he hated the humorous twist on human suffering...dana