Charlotte,NC;12:59pm

[ncrainbowgrrl]

(I must admit- I found this on a disk of old work- I didn't write it recently- this was written circa 2000.)


Hunger grabbed hold of me
as we landed at the Charlotte Airport.
I’d like a cinnibon,” I said impatiently to the man behind the counter.
Ineptly, he worked the register.
He took my money.
I looked around at the line forming behind me.

I laid eyes on the boy.
He wore a white sailor’s uniform that was way too big
For him.
His shoulders were hunched.
But he looked outwardly brave, yet almost as if he was about to cry.
He looked as if he could be the fourteen year old brother of a friend.
I knew that he wasn’t fourteen-
This young person had been declared a man by the U. S. Navy, after all.
But his eyes were both haunting and haunted.
He looked no more of a man than I a
Giraffe

He gave me a half-smile, his light blue eyes
Looking directly at me, perhaps through
Me. For a second, I felt naked.
Exposed.
For I was no more of a child than He was.
I would be with people who loved me when I got off the plane.
They would watch out for me;
Help me avoid the battlefield.
What right did I have to be scared for Him?

Wasn’t that
His mother’s prerogative
His sister’s? His lover’s?
(But all I could do was
Stare.)

“Would you like anything else?” asked the man behind the counter.
“No.”
The sound of a cash register opening,
green paper changing hands.
Blue eyes behind me, and the swirl of the brown and white sugar.
All the colors of the civilian world.
Yet the boy wore only
White.

I moved to the side with my purchase.
Behind me, I could hear a deep male voice.
“I’d like a Cinnibon,” he said, voice
Unbreaking. “with Extra frosting.”
Sleep well tonight, the child shall protect us all.

[oneighty]

1. Nice poem

Check your PM.

180