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Postcard 1943
0000More than half our memories
0000have more than two halves,
0000half obscurely remembered,
0000half real, half told.
A postcard my father sent in 1943
has just reached me, twelve years after his death.
The card floated to the top of a box.
Now the father is to the son
some portion of what he wished to be.
Soldier with broom, trash barrel on wheels,
watches officers on horseback, parade.
Across the top: “Am anticipating a busy time here!”
Meaningless to a 3 year old.
September 23, 1943,
from Kennedy General Hospital,
Memphis, Tennessee:
Hello my sweet boy. Daddy loves you.
When are you coming to the Army
with your Daddy?
Are you all better now?
A big kiss for my boy.
This from a man who found it
difficult to talk with us
once we started school.
0000Half forgotten
0000half been told
Pre-war four-door dark green car,
stick shift on the column,
standing on the front seat
late at night riding with my father,
my skin exposed to cool my itching body.
Are you all better now?
Then in my teens, brown car,
riding to house-calls to satisfy,
as best we could, the need for contact.
Some calls I keep:
Foul tunnels flushed with mercurochrome,
daily we cut away necrotic tissue,
rotted with gangrene, from the foot
to walk on, as promised, by Christmas;
The baby’s face we sewed, slashed
forehead to cheek by the family cat;
the excess suture material I cut away
after he ties the knots;
The long needle forced into the belly,
twice each week to drain
the bladder of the woman trapped in bed,
by what, other than herself?
We dump the washtub whenever it gets full.
Handing him tools, I watch,
learning to calm and repair.
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When my father
Here I stand
Postcard 1943
Smiles at mountains
Saving the roses
Guy time
Real Estate
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Neal Spitzer, artist, realist painter of people, paintings, portraits, portrait commissions, limited edition archival prints Poetry in Public Places Neal Spitzer, artist, realist painter of people, paintings, portraits, portrait commissions, limited edition archival prints Poetry in Public Places Neal Spitzer, artist, realist painter of people, paintings, portraits, portrait commissions, limited edition archival prints Poetry in Public Places Neal Spitzer, artist, realist painter of people, paintings, portraits, portrait commissions, limited edition archival prints
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