Brovic's Crossroads
Co-captain of the football team
graduation then marine
his hometown's pride when he adorned
a combat soldier's uniform
his luck turned sour from the first
when a planted roadside bomb burst
and took the driver and his limbs
in a flash, a burn, and blackened spin
through frantic hands and shouting men
and numbing pain and wonder when
they worked over him if death would wait
if they could just evacuate.
He watched the news from far away
with tv dinner on a tray
his mother served while father wept
and horror in his dreams had crept
through German then stateside VA
hospitals where prosthesis gave
him arms and legs
and purple heart for his parade.
His mother's forehead etched in sorrow
the father's doubts what chance tomorrow
for a son given to his country's pride
convinced himself for freedom's ride
but soon the highschool sweetheart drifted
through old photos she had sifted
for now he was his country's dregs
and Cynthia wanted a man with legs.
- end
