For My Father, Robert H. Phillips
Captain US Army, WWII, China/Burma/India
MY DAD
My dad............
sat in the dark
cried out in the night
never ate rice
had a strong sense of "right" -
Hid in a phone booth
when he came home
straight off the bus
and feeling alone.
Not sure quite yet
that his family was real;
not sure, inside,
quite how he should feel;
fought hand to hand
till a soldier was dead
(which must have replayed
many times in his head) -
Struck out at my mom
thinking she was the foe.
She woke him too fast,
and he woke too slow.
"Don't waste your food
when children are dying"
(he would have known -
he'd seen them crying)....
I wish he had told us
what happened to him.
Sometimes we were angry
when he seemed so grim.
Scared of the outbursts
he often went through;
He was my Dad
and I say this to you.
I'm just fitting together
the man that I knew -
with the man who re-lived
in his dreams
WWII.
©Copyright March 1998 by Christina
Labels: Christina, Memorial Day, Pro-Troop Poets, tributes, Veterans, WWII
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