No part of this poetry should be reproduced in any form without written consent from the author, Joe DiMino, who retains all rights: contact poet@light-cards.com
"I Sat Beneath A Veteran Oak" (by Joe DiMino)
I sat beneath a Veteran-oak,
In awe of His strength
Here was a solid spirit!
Sympathy you get from Willow,
But stiff upper-lip from old soldiers,
With forged bark
His limbs flexed, cut, rippled against the wind
No chinks in this warrior-wood
Divide and Conquer!
Then I thought of my Father
A cook at the end of the warThe Big One!
You know the One I mean, as if there are small ones
When the commanders were through eating
He was instructed to toss the leftovers
From the belch of plates
Trashcans were in the alley,
The steel that seems intrinsic to battles
In one form or another
The hungry German children
Would sneak pass the guards
And line-up;
My father would sneak pass his superiors
And his honor
To dispense carefully wrapped scraps
Well, soon the line was out into the street
As my father was compelled to seek food
From wherever he could steal, beg or barter
To procureThis brought attentionthe cat-out-of-the-bag,
And all hell down on my father,
As the captain screamed: Gus, these are the enemy (the children
in the alley),
What in Gods Name are you doing?
He was forced to stopno Court Marshal though
I looked up again at the old oak,
Through the snarled branches
Deep into the staunch soldier,
Where I spied a nest
In a small, compact fork
Having a canopy of extra leaves
For shade and shelter from the wind
I smiledhum
His bark reddened, but like my father, no apology from this weathered
soldier