Thomas Robert Turner, May 23, 1942 – November 13, 2014
I love you, Bobby!
I, slave, chained to an oar of poem,
Inhabiting this faraway province where
Nothing happens, I wouldn’t want it to.
I have expressly deprived myself of much:
Conversation, sweets of friendship, love. . . .
The public women of the town don’t appeal.
I wouldn’t want them to. There are no others,
At least for an old, smelly, covetous bookman.
So may things might have fed this avocation,
But what’s the point? It’s too late.
I was one of the lucky ones. In January 1966 I was drafted into the Army, along with two other friends from Naperville and like so many others in 1966, they were dead by the end of the year.
“It’s veteran’s day and the skies are gray
Leave the uniforms home cause there ain’t gonna be a parade
But we’ll fill up a glass for the ones that didn’t make it through
And leave a light in the window tonight for Jimmy McGrew.” — from “Veteran’s Day” by Tom Russell.
One of the blogs I link to is SO FAR FROM HEAVEN: OLD JULES. I enjoy Old Jules’s take on life. In one of today’s post, “My Original Veteran’s Day Post,” Old Jules writes about his old running buddy, Phil:
“I hadn’t thought about my old running buddy, Phil, for a while. That last blog entry got me chewing on thoughts of him. I’ll tell you a bit more about him.
Phil went to the Marine Corps as the result of being a 17 year old driving from Temple, Texas, to Austin with a case of beer in the car. A Williamson County Sheriff Deputy stopped him on a tail light violation, asked for his driver’s license and saw the case of beer. Old Phil, being a clever youth, gave the officer a Texas Drivers License with an altered date of…
Autumn Leaves — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Thomas Robert Turner, May 23, 1942 – November 13, 2014
Mountain Marigold on Mt. Lemmon — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Beautiful Grass Meadow Along The Trail To Thimble Peak (In the distance to the left.) — Panoramic Image by kenne
Arizona Wild Cotton — Photo-Artistry by kenne
