Remembrance Day
11/11/11

for Edward H. Kryder, Lt. USN
139O87

What color the sky, how calm the sea in silence …
when with friends in arms you stood for peace –
no band or pomp, just hearts tuned in reverence:

so many lost, so screams or cheers were violence
to say aright what is best unsaid, without ease:
what color the sky, how calm the sea in silence …

Of Firedrake’s hymn unheard, your memory’s sense
sounds in me the choir in winds without cease:
unity beyond creed is belief, benevolence.

I see you, my father, stand against malevolence
on deck, at altar, decades past that 5 minutes’ feast:
what color the sky, how calm the sea in silence …

Victory like an eclipse can sear, seals eyes in patience
as yours to find light not stars’, heal dis-ease:
unity beyond creed is belief, benevolence.

And now as then you stand against somnolence
of mind or spirit, in prayer and will the keys –
What color the sky, how calm the sea in silence …
unity beyond creed is belief, benevolence.

Jack the Dog

Where did you run from
and how far will you go
to find where you can stay,
where like Argos you too
will venture in the body
of your mind to meet
your master at the hour
he arrives, as you knew
near Dayton his scent warm
in the wine of the wind
but could not yet divine
in what direction Direction
took flight, your haunch
like your hunch strong
as the stones upon which
you sail, tacking west
through rain through hail
before winter buries fall
in its white pall, pawing
across feral lanes as flat
and gray as the patch over
your right eye is ebon black,
on attack with kindness
as your left eye ringed
with light marks
just as your muzzle,
the hope in your frame
standing alert with freedom
of belief to hear in doubt
the call of the voice
chanting your name, choosing
your heart as loon calls
loon through fog and dark,
through whatever is not
and whatever might be found
the whatever that always is.