Grandfather at War, Age 17
Rent from DeepDyve- Grandfather at War, Age 17
He curved the 7 into an 8,steadied his hat,
and boarded the cruiser one foot tallerthan the other men.
The men called him Bones, Boy,called him Bird brain,
and once moored at Mariana,the men dropped Boy overboard
to see if the young mechaniccould wrench his way
out of a steam engineof ship-turned seawater.
Boy swam. Bird flew over the reef.Bones sculled upstream
into the heated core of the island.Boy held his breath
and turned into oil. Men ranon both sides
of his river. Men fellon both sides of his body. [End Page 108]
Boy never knew that battlecould be so beautiful:
tropical forests and toucansfrom picture books,
red heliconias danglinglike torn-open spines.
Back on board, the boys called himfrogman, Frank, one helluva fool. [End Page 109]
Kristi Moos is the editor-in-chief of Poecology and the author of Oakland Poems (Deep Oakland), which won the Harold Taylor Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, New American Writing, and elsewhere. She lives in Palo Alto, California.
