They say
Words can leap off the page.
They say
Words can cut like a knife.

Come home from watching Lubovitch's dancers
Doing crazy eights upon the Joyce stage,
Rat-a-tat and seconds to bed tablet two-handed,
Some of thy words to keep, relish and visualize.
Tongue-taste delights, imagery dreamed, conceive'd!

Read four or five and I am
Crucified.

Anguish
Unrelenting - knocks planet Earth
Off its axis.
Star watching observatories call
NASA
"What's going on?"
But hey, they don't take the
Call
I don't make
Explaining soular word flares.

Anguish
Black and bold apropos.
Its asexual attendants,
Greet me, as I lay me down to sleep,
Souls inferno'd true confessions slap
Reality TV down to a pathetic joke.
Words, thorns without roses,
Bodies ready for extreme unction,
Punks puncturing peace with no punctuation,
Respite, none,
Spite, aplenty.

Google "sayings about words," thousands exist, pithy.
Amusing, insightful, but can't uncover any that relieve
Anguish,
the way needed now, for this crisis state.

Anguish.
Say it slow with your hands clasping your head,
The electric **** stabs connect your ears, but
Like water seeking release, head southbound to test the
Cavities of the heart's boundaries, probe for the
Satisfying silent ******* screaming weak spots.

Anguish.
Say it     r  e  a  l     slow,
feel the sounds of a summary of
Many other words, subsets of misery etc. etc.

The Aingsound,
Reminder of the dinging ringing stinking stingers,
Happy in their ***** work,
Here a hurt, there a hurt,
Everywhere a hurt hurt.

The shhh sound,
Is the bitter taste residue down sinister,
Ends in it,
No wash of the body or the mouth
Removes the endless shhh sound that is the exact
Opposite of a silencing hush.

I say,
I have words too.

Though I am not now,
Next to you,
You will hear my voice,
Out loud, out now, speaking
My words, recite or
Stop.

My words:

Feel just like those squeezing hugs parents
Give their kids when they are six seven and eight.
Hugs so tight the breath stops, but no minded,
For the message well received,
You are mine, my always, unencumbered,
Safely will this hugging touch see you through the night.

Foolish parents thinking those hugs unnecessary,
When children are "old," you know, like
Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, when
Anguish
Needs defeating then, needs them hugs,
Now more than ever.

My words:

Are the arm unexpected slung fastball of simple affection,
Over and around a shoulder sent and spent,
A best friend's gesture that says, I know, I care.
A costless measure that measures in caring
What no precious metal could dare contend.

My words:

Are hands, a corps, a division of single soldiers,
Stroking thy cheek, caressing thy forehead,
Corpsmen coming for the wounded with comfort,
Antiseptic syringes, stretchers to take away
What needs taking away.

My words:

Are a neck architecturally designed to take your
Head, be a pillow resting place, your bird house to
Shelter or hide, as you need, see fit.
There is no rent charged,
Except for what I pay you in the coin of comfort.

My words:

Drum beating chest for your rest, each beat a
Message of connection, my beats purposed to
Remind you that thousands beats more yours,
So look up raise up refreshed head, to listen
For it's the song of steady, a reminder, a remainder,
So many much chances yet.

My words:

The drowning pools where anguish suffocates,
For it cannot breathe in a world of words of
Pure oxygen that resuscitate, filter, restore.
Each breath a clarification, each one  word speaking,
No more, no mas, done, enough,
Anguish
Extinguished, banished.

They say,
Words can leap off the page,
They say.

No, you try, you hear it, the voice clarion,
These new words that travel up thine arms
Holding until the until, no end demanded,
Awe and then some,
Some more,
Healing words, meant to be read back to me,
So I can rest knowing you've lesson-learned,
Homework done, cause it is your words speaking,
Out Loud!
My words,
Become words of yours,

Your words.

Scrambled Eggs in Rainwater

Field Medical Service School

Shivering in the rain, up in the hills
Of Sunny Southern California
Kerosene cookers and their gust-blown smoke
Squid-wet Corpsmen in flying wet slickers

Mess kits held out to sullen, cursing cooks
Slam-slopping glops of sausages and eggs
Cold coffee in aluminum canteen cups
No cover, no shelter for floating food

Or for sergeants bellowing in the dark –
And we laughed through it all, for we were young

Go away away you mighty Norse wind
Blowing ice right off the ground
I lived on the land and I lived on the sea
but I never heard such a fearsome sound
Out of nowhere I saw a window
I felt bad but on that night I had to beg
To spend this night on the inside
Because I have gotten so cold I was just the dregs
Suddenly in the window
There was a face I had known from before
I tried to dust off and take another step
But she caught me when I got to the door
But I never expected to see her again
All I can say is really who everknows
You can never know what might happens
When that cold norse wind really blows
"She said I never thought I'd see you again
Not so threadbare and worn
You better come here where the fire is near
Then we can talk about where we were if I passed out when I just saw one tear
She said I slept 3 days crying out a womans name"
I almost cried because death came so close
I wanted to joim my loved ones
But I guess that roads not for me or for Rose
If you want I'll just go hit the road
We never expected to see one another way back then
She had decided 2 years before she didnt need any men
She pulled a down duvet over both of us
Then she gave her warmth to me
A truer, finer lady is very rare lady for me to see
I told her I'd been a Merchant Marine
That I green broke horses for some years
Sailed around the seas each of the seven
But I  could never sail on one and get to Heaven
But she said she didnt want anymore to speak of the past
How I should have known I couldnt catch up to the future
We learned to be Nurses and Corpsmen
But you could say our dice came up seven
The die were swung and it was a hard 8 here we are watching all this snow
But its nice that we can be together now
Its a pleasure to see a warm face instead of all my grieving
I asked if I could stay 3 or 4 weeks
To lift and repair things done that  a man,s meant to do
She said she rarely saw people and and if I did then my tab would be even
Here we were 60 and could still be shy
That was the gift she gave me
That was 2 years before I came here
Before I left I kissed her long and deep
Then said even a wranglers luck will change
She changed mine for the better

Il faisait froid pour début juin; une pause entre deux tempêtes.
Le surf -rough, l'eau froide, mais la réception serait chaude.
Notre bateau de Higgins a fait une vitesse constante nous emmenant au rivage.
Pour certains, c'était le jour le plus long, pour beaucoup d'autres le dernier jour.

La scène qui nous attendait était surréaliste; une boue comme le pire.
Les Allemands ont occupé les corpsmen s'ils ne les ont pas d'abord tués.
La pluie de plomb était constante pendant que nous nous sommes battus vers la rive.
Notre peloton a été décimé. beaucoup ont vu la fin de la guerre.

Il y avait des actes d'héroïsme. Nos dirigeants ont prouvé leur valeur.
Nous avons pris le mur de l'Atlantique de ******; pensée imprenable au premier abord.
J'ai regardé depuis le haut bluff à l'Armada grise juste au large de la côte.
J'ai perdu une bande de copains aujourd'hui, mais nous allons même marquer des points.

Nous sommes une bande de frères campés au-dessus de cette rive normande.
Je ne dirai jamais à mes parents les horreurs que j'ai vues.
L'air pue la sueur et le fer, et la puanteur de la cordite des rondes passées.
Les aumôniers recueillent les étiquettes de chien des formes immobiles sur le sol.

It was cold for early June; a pause between two storms.
The surf –rough, the water-cold, but the reception would be warm.
Our Higgins boat made steady speed taking us to shore.
For some it was the Longest Day, for many others the last they saw.

The scene awaiting us was surreal; a muck up like the worst.
The Germans kept the corpsmen busy- if they didn’t **** them first.
The leaden rain was constant as we struggled towards the shore.
Our platoon was decimated; many saw the end of war.

There were acts of heroism. Our leaders proved their worth.
We took ******’s Atlantic wall; thought impregnable at first.
I looked from the high bluff at the grey Armada just off shore.
I lost a bunch of pals today, but we’ll even the score.

We are a band of brothers encamped above this Norman shore.
I will never tell my parents of the horrors that I saw.
The air stinks of sweat and iron, and the stench of cordite from spent rounds.
The chaplains collect the dog tags from the still forms on the ground.

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                 Four Shirtless Boys on a Mountain in California

                            Sergeant Schneider’s Prophecy

There we are in a fading color photograph
Posing atop a mountain peak in Big Bear
Immensely proud in our Edmund Hillary moment
Though most every casual hiker has been there

On Monday morning we were back in Camp Del Mar
Navy Corpsmen standing formation in Marine green
“Split off into groups of four,” Sergeant Schneider barked
“Look at the other three. Within a year
                    One of you will be dead.”

Half of Mike’s brain was blown in Viet-Nam
The other Mike died in Minnesota last year
                     I don’t know what happened to Bill