THE LETTER

[Jeffersons Ghost]

LETTERS CAST IN SAND
One night as pen and paper, fall freely from my hand,
I wrote to our troops in finger-scrawl on a darkened shore
Then I heard sea-drumming; coming low, like a marching band,
as words were washing from my soul and rhyming by the score
Then I felt a feather flick my face and fall to salty sand
But darkness grounds all birds, to nestle on the land

I believe it fell from an angel, sailing softly past a dune,
as forceful seas of private shame, came washing in once more.
I think it was last season’s song, swirling through her tune,
while waves wept booming echoes, like a distant cannon’s roar.
I wrote my sandy phrase, by the light of a blood-red moon,
from a letter saying her son was dead, which arrived too soon.

Perhaps a windy blast had blown that dove-fluff free,
as some bird sat sleeping on a fence or telephone line.
But the moonlit beach held neither fence, nor line, nor tree:
It only offers frothing waves and winds to chill your spine
I thought back to a busty barmaid, tattooed in poetry
“Gone But Not Forgotten” are words worn for all to see.

Has peace become a shell-game for peasants on the beach;
or a perfect pearl of passion pinned to a hellish harlot’s dress?
When will we learn that fighting puts God’s mercy out of reach;
as it ruffles feathers, when His sandbox becomes a bloody mess?
Will wartime propaganda be the only song we teach;
while un-hatched generations pay for the lies we preach?

This morning, as the sun rises to reveal my sandy scrawl;
All this beach will let me say is in those letters that washed away;
like bands, which march in silence, as angels sing and fall.
Grisly gulls - pecking at crabs - seem to bow and pray;
to dove duets, cooing lost love-songs, with every calming call;
as a sad parade loads instruments, in black boxes down the hall.

Jeffersons Ghost

While writing letters to perfect strangers, who serve us in battle overseas, might seem futile, it matters a great deal to our troops. Instead of tying a tired yellow ribbon to an old oak tree, find a way to send gifts or at least write letters to America’s Finest. A letter to some stranger in uniform seems like such a silly little thing. Little things matter, however, when your best friend just died in a fire-fight for foreign sand.

http://www.letterstosoldiers.org/events.html

[Peace Teacher]

1. Kicked and Recommended

[Peace Teacher]

3. thanks for your kindness

[Patchuli]

2. Wow! You are an awesome writer!

I wrote a letter to a soldier, but it doesn't come close to your's!

K & R!

[tblue37]

4. When my nephew, then age 20, was doing his first Iraq tour,

his favorite English teacher from high school had her writing class write letters to him. He didn't know any of those kids, but he kept all the letters during the year he was there, and he read and reread them many times.

During his second (15 months this time) tour that he just completed, he had lots of pictures and letters from his young wife of a little over a year and their baby, who was just 6 months when he left for Iraq. But he was still grateful for the letters from strangers. There is a lot of very boring down time there.

My son was in Baghdad for a 4-month tour with the Department of Defense. He and his teammates were charmed by the letters they got from elementary school children. They actually sat down and answered every one of them!

[cabbage08]

5. K&R