Star Born

Tonight, blips of distant light beckon me-

I sit on concrete steps, cat in arm, frosty breath at my lips, listening to barking dogs, a zephyr whispering to blades of grass, the rustle of crumpled paper, a crinkled soda can,

Construction; the rumble of passing cars,

A glimmer of light catches my eye, and against the streetlamps, I spot a lone star amid a tenebrous sky,

I have awakened, I say, I have awakened, and I am here...

But the ancient traveller does not blink, not once,

And the heavens pretend they are a void.

Copyright 2010

Private's Folly

During a training exercise, a sergeant taught a private to throw a grenade.

He ran ten yards away to be safe, and shouted the instructions, "Pull the pin, throw, and hit the dirt!"

The private threw the explosive at him. The sergeant, luckily, rolled out of the way. He did not know whether the soldier acted deliberately or in sheer stupidity, but a few months later, they met again at a tavern. The man was missing a leg.

The sergeant dismissed any hard feelings, and asked, "What the hell happened to you?"

"Well, I was caught in an ambush," the private replied, "My men got trapped in the jeep, under fire, and I managed to make it to a ditch. I yanked out a grenade and pulled the pin and lever, but the enemy saw it and ran away, so I put it back on my belt."