50 People - 34 Poem by Raj Dronamraju

34

At first he wrote twice a week
E-mails full of rapid fire abbreviations
And a frenetic switching of locales - I'm in Germany, I'm in Afghanistan
In the past, these would have been letters carefully saved

And it makes me remember how he enlisted in the army one week after high school graduation and the next time I saw him, he had shaved his head

And it made me remember drinking beer in the afternoon with his grandfather
He told us stories of his experiences in the navy during World War II
How two kamikaze planes rammed his troop ship killing 20 sailors
How he had to clean the remains of friends off the deck

This generation's war is distant, digital
Full of stops and starts
Embedded reporters and plain sight booby traps

It wasn't just a chance for recycled glory that made him join the armed services
Rather it was the stepmother
Who panicked him into this decision
Who rushed him into this decision

His grades weren't good enough for college
"You can't live here forever"
"Lord knows, you could use some discipline! "