(for RJ)

by Ted LaRusso

Still miss you
Pal
Know what you would say
Let it go
Let me go
No
Never
The smell of lilacs in Spring
Can never be forgotten
By
The Soldier
Who smelled the sprig
While
Losing a leg
Whistling
Hogan’s Heroes

In
Our
Comic
Book
Painting a war without pity
You
Sang
An entire occupied
Town
Without a song
But
Funnier

Were we ever there
In those colored-in battles?
No
We played there
Though
With fleshly guns
Laughed-out eyes
Stinky stocking toes
One-Liners
And
Fig Newtons
My Cat
On your lap
On the favored chair
Searching for a word to save us
From
Laughing ourselves to
Death

Abe Lincoln
Your idol
Said
Four score
Battle’s won
Here’s your
Dignity
Son
Conceived in liberty
Dedicated to a proposition
That all men
I know
Die
You did
And
So
I ask your idol
To
Allow me
To mourn you
Without the scourge
Of exquisite words
For
The empty chair is enough
And
Just this once
As I wrap my arms around a shadow
I beg you
Mr. Lincoln
Please
Shut
The hell
Up