he took an unusual afternoon beer
and sat outside in the sun to assuage what seemed a relentless day on the
telephone
he could almost imagine a
conspiracy the work behind the scenesIve
got him Im off in five then you call
he felt tagteamed
it was known by his family if they
got him they best keep him because itd be some time again before they did
his dislike of telephones wasnt
errant
he spent twelve years in a call
canter mitigating trouble between his company and its customers
he called them his customers
he was a senior customer care
representative and his self-fashioned job was to assure and provide his
customers received exactly nothing more than what his company promised and was
paid to deliver
the company didnt have to say if it
wasnt their intent to make good on their word
he held them piously to their
word
as he held his customers to theirs
too
the twelve years tooks its toll
it disfigured John Donnes metaphysical
“never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee”
who said thee anymore
habitchualised
he did
the sun felt good
having his arm down felt better
he rested the cold can on his leg
after taking a long draught
bringing his head down he saw through
the bare limbs of the walnut his hawk returning ahead of a cawing convoy of kamikrazed
blackbirds
he hadnt seen the hawk since Spring
and missed it
there was no mistaking him he was nearly as large as an eagle
the hawk took its roost in the spire
of a singular tall digger pine about a klik east of him
a klik did he think that
a kliks about all that remained of his military service
he went AWOL in Nam
worked his way back to the States
after Fords ‘74 amnesty quite a fuckin rigmarole though a good ground zero to learn mitigation
and wind his way through bullshit and redtape
when he tendered job applications
he emphatically darkened the NO check-boxes which related to military service
he served only to beat a trumped
up charge of assault and battery
you dont beat up one of the towns Founding Familys punks
the Court in its lenience offered
him the opportunity to serve his country serve in the military
offering him in one hand time outofdoors
in its other hand a stretch inside
prison
he thought Christ I havent even
been tried a jury yet unassembled
evidently it had
discretion is the better part of valour
in-country he realised the criminality
of the War
the US military wanted to return to
the Stone Age a people who had known nothing but conflict and war since the
Japanese invaded Vichy French Indochina in’40
he wasnt taught that in school
the small town Fourth of July
parades and celebrations he was a part of as a boy and teenager didnt inform him
of Americas blind faith its vigorous vulgar Imperial overreach
Hell in-country he learned of USs B52s secret
bombing of Cambodia and Laos
Subtle coercion huh
flipping the scenario he wondered
how Americans would respond if their country was invaded and bombed
Right
Damn right by hook or by crook theyd
kill off invaders one at a time with anything at their disposal
an airplane droned overhead
looking up taking a sip of beer it looked like a high-flying
white crucifix
the best he knew Christ couldnt fly
He was no Superman
Aahh always nice to be outofdoors
1404, Friday,
16 9. 16
1112, Sunday – Paws boithday, 18 9.
16
John Donne “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is
the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie
were, as well as if a Mannor of
thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death
diminishes me, because I am
involved in Mankinde; And
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
