海角大神

Rifles and Roses

For my husband, Lou

With your bayonet

you used to cut a rose

to wear in your rifle -

a rose

the color of a heart.

Instead of firing a gun,

you played

in an Army band.

As I write,

someone

in another country

on another continent

may be

listening to music -

without realizing

what he owes

to a clarinet.