Month: July 2012

Linda Straub
Homecoming

It was a pink cotton dress
patterned with white daisies,
sleeveless with spagetti straps
that slid off the shoulders
like children who can’t sit still.

It was a navy blue uniform
with seargant’s stripes
and an adjustable belt
anchored on a slim waist,
below the purple heart.

It was a July day in 1969
at a suburban train station
outside of Philadelphia;
no longer “in country”,
now steppin’ on American soil.

It was a white corvair
with red bucket seats
and Dylan on the radio,
each turned up high
and playing for peace.

It was a warrior and his woman
driving by the school yard
where the band played,
but there was no parade–
just two hands exploring.

Linda Straub

***

Thirty Years Ago

Dreamy words of better ways.
Inner feelings stirred.
Some thirty years ago or more
I listened and I heard.
Hopeful thoughts of future days.
Students undeterred.
A growing call to end a war.
Moralities were blurred.

Revolution at the gate.
Riots on TV.
Anticipation in my mind
Of better things to be.
Patiently I’d sit and wait
for coming history,
A dismal future redefined.
My foolish fantasy.

Now they wear the suit and tie.
Corporate life would call.
Ideal words would fade away
and Vietnam would fall.
Revolutionary cries,
sights that I recall.
I wonder if they fell astray
or if they cared at all.

Copyright © 1998 MadGerman@aol.com Jim Schultz