POETRY |
We found a box high in the closet - Weebly.com
Army Green was a trigger.
My father was colorblind but he could recognize that color-- Army Green. Never, ever would we buy clothes or blankets or towels or upholstery in that color that he never wanted to see again. He had chosen to be a WWII medic so he didn’t have to carry a weapon. But what he carried instead were horrid visions of fallen soldiers, soldiers he reached too late, and soldiers who died in his arms. Army Green uniforms soaked in fresh red blood. Red and green not like a winter holiday but wrapped around raw death. When we were growing up he proudly showed my brother and me the medals he won at summer camp for archery and swimming when he was nine. But it wasn’t until after he died that we found a box high in the closet containing Army Medals for Bravery for running out unarmed in the line of fire to save lives. He hid these medals because every death was traumatic and the only prize he wanted was coming home to my mother. The soldiers returned and re-joined society but ever so often we saw a change in their faces when a war memory was triggered by the backfire of a car, a news article about a war, their child’s injured finger spouting blood or the wide-eyed terror of seeing Army Green. Vertical Divider
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Since age six, Vivian Imperiale has been writing poetry to identify and process her emotions about the world around her. She soon learned that her poems could be meaningful to others. A friend touched her with these words, "You gave me words for an emotion I didn't even know I needed to express."
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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University.
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University (OLLI at SF State) provides communal and material support to theVistas & Byways volunteer staff.
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