April Count

Southern black boy.
But that wasn’t it. Mama
and what she taught you. She, left
alone then. No mention of a daddy
crossed your lips,
not part of a printed obituary
I fail
to find.

I knew you
as Sumlin. You
addressed me as Specialist Austin.
Not as others
the sound of your voice,
though I fail
at the distinction you
chose.

Tense
times at S-4, race
issues and sexual
harassment
may exist
in the army but they do not
exist at 536th. He,
the Light Bird had said.

For you and one
other, he was right. Not
counting me of course, I
didn’t see color, but felt
it instead, in my
pale and Caucasian
wrongness
with a family you didn’t hold against me.

So it was you who returned
to help Specialist Austin
for three short weeks
in the rear. And you fell
in love or lust, I know not
which. And too, I don’t remember,
did I request you? Perhaps
you offered.

Indeed you did return that day
to an empty motor pool save
you, me, and SFC Cooley, and yes, Aaron
who our NCOIC paid
five cents for each one by two
or two by four. Aaron grabbed each,
took one, maybe more, green lumber
boards from your own hand.

That day, hot like the rest of them, and Aaron
camouflaged in combat boots and olive drab
counted nickels in his head and you
ticked off time and yet smiled somewhat
at the slowness of it all. Never dreaming
this night underneath
a blanket of stars to birth one more night of tropical
romance would be your last.

Later, the third grader wrote a letter
to your Mama, I remember the tears streamed from eyes
I yearn for today as he wrote, “I’m sorry your son died
and he was my very best
friend.” But not before you and SFC Cooley
shared a meal with the three of us at 377B, I think
of macaroni and tomatoes, I’m not certain any longer.
We ate it so much then.

In a cold S-4, some days later, checking
some form, counting your clothes, touching
things personal. An invasion.
I thought of your poor Mama,
opened, flipped
through and packed your small green New Testament, counted, signed
and dated the rest. Drew the line on the form before and after
--------Nothing Follows--------