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TOCK TICK
He was an amateur horologist, so time was important to him. And time had left him with nothing but questions because language, poorly used was far less valuable to him, particularly when it touched on his greatest joy. What, he asked, did time do when it left the army and stopped marching? Why couldn’t he…
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MARCHING
We walkedfor hours a daywe walked goingnowhere exactlythey wantedmarchingwe walked never quitein stepdespite Sarge’scursed entreaties.By the endof the fifth weekwe marchedin stepmostly.Sarge foundother thingsto curse“you will NEVERbe soldiers” he saidWe are inthe Air Forcewe thoughtnever meantto be soldiers.
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AND PEACE?
Santayana said, “Only the deadhave seen the end of the war.”We have grown adept at wars,no longer global in scope, butubiquitous in frequency. Mine was fought in the ricepaddies of Vietnam, and on thecampus where we struggledvaliantly and vainly to protest,and when that failed, in the heatof Texas, marching about, goingthankfully nowhere, shippedto Niagara Falls…
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SMART ONES
We marched for hours, going nowhere really, but nowhere was the point of the marching so we achieved the goal the Air Force set. We didn’t even think it odd that they made us shave our heads, so we’d all look like fools, there was a war on and we were in the military, so…
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HUP TWO
In his dreams he is still marching across endless paved paths on an Air Force Base that might be Texas or might just be hell. In his recollection, in July there is virtually no difference between the two. He stirs each time his Drill Instructor bellows, which is every few minutes, likely seconds in this…
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HELL, FAR LEFT CORNER
I suspect that I am not alone in wondering if there is a corner of literary hell set aside for those who foist clichés on the world and at the head of that table should sit the fellow who first said “time marches on.” Even Einstein realized that time is relative, and as one who…
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an old writer and his words 