Obligations

 

Unsettled, we described him,

cousin Sam fresh out of Vietnam.

He shucked his uniform,

disparaged military obligation,

swore he’d never again be obliged.

Soon took off for parts unknown,

no cards, no calls.

 

He passed through twenty years ago

and saw nothing was the same

as he remembered.

Said he might as well be a stranger

somewhere else.

 

Body or bones, he’d be eighty now –

probably rootless, homeless, friendless,

but without obligation.

 

Scholl

Sharon Scholl is a retired college teacher who convene a poetry critique group and maintains a website (freeprintmusic.com) that donates original music to small’ liberal churches.  Her poetry chapbookis, Seasons, Remains, Evensong, and available via Amazon Books.  Her poems are current in The Taborian and Red Rose, Thorns.

 

John Tracy is a self-taught photographer who worked as a photojournalist for the New York Daily News for seven years before becoming an attorney. He has recently been published in F-Stop Magazine, Birmingham Arts Journal and Dipity. His work can be viewed at www.jtracy.com.