I KNEW YOU
BUT A MOMENT By Jim Kittelberger
The glider swayed back and forth until finally, I was aware only
of the motion and the small breeze it created as I surrendered to the repetitions and its ability to close out all
but the pleasure of the moment.
My eyes surrendered and closed.
I may have dozed, I don't know
until I became aware that my ears were taking me into that world where imagination reigns.
I sat in the
silence of the afternoon, alone, thoroughly content, my mind a blank canvas until the familiar sound of locusts working
the trees drew me home. The sun directly above my head told me it was noon and very warm. Grass under my bare feet,
a slingshot in my back pocket put the year at 1944, and I immediately felt the shattering loneliness return. Tears
which I tried so hard to hide came unbidden to run down my cheeks. I lie under the big maple and weep and remember.
My
big brother Ned and I had sat together under this same big maple on the day he left. He told me once again that he loved
me, and when he came home from the war, he would teach me how to throw a curve and all about the mysteries of girls, as he
poked me with his elbow, and I blushed.
Then he promised me he would be back safe and sound.
He lied
to me.
I grieve every day of my life for my big brother Ned, for all that he has missed, but in fact
it is I for whom I grieve, for the time I could have had with him. Ned abides with all his fellows who lived abbreviated
lives, unfinished lives, unfulfilled lives, while we who knew them wonder why, as we weep once more.
Copyright
Jim Kittelberger 2001. |
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