The Lexicon

First set two feet on earth in Galesburg, IL in the month & year of the dog, 1970 to the west. Loved lightening and fire and the rhymes of my grandparents from the moment my eyes and ears opened. Sang back everything I ever heard to celebrate my second Christmas. Learned to play in my great-grandfather's garden, learned to work in my grandmother's kitchen, learned to love at my mother's bosom, learned to cry on my father's knee. Wanted to see all the mountains & oceans from the 1st time I heard that such things just might be. Lands that strive to touch on the sky, waters which reach out to infinity. I did well in school just to stay out of trouble, & also because it was all I could do, then I got skinned elbows and knees in the rubble, because blood is the only thing everyone knew. So I left that home at 14 for the stormy sunny south. I took the first chance I could get to get moving, to go as far and wide as I could. That wasn't far enough. I joined the Marine Corps before I finished high school so I could go further faster. Learned to speak Arabic to smooth the trip. I translated it on the ground during all of the Gulf War and after. I learned misery and mockery of death. I travelled the world in an ugly camo suit, toting a rifle and juggling dictionaries. The smell is still in my nose. I may never completely enjoy a rose. Who knows? I served my time for this country. I will always if I am called. Too much information and yet so little. I am a yeti in a swamp.