tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-385966552011-04-21T15:09:58.553-07:00The Rascalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00744815775311819914noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38596655.post-1168870579037599852007-01-15T06:11:00.000-08:002007-01-15T06:16:19.043-08:00A Gentle Man<br /> Edwin Partridge (1923-2005)<br /><br />Barely nineteen, volunteered for the war.<br />monitored radar,<br />hearing pilots rumble off<br />into black;<br /><br />silently noted<br />which friends didn't come back.<br />One August dawn,<br />only wind-rattled palms.<br />He was grateful just to sail home.<br /><br />Later, with wife and sons, he'd scan the sky<br />for blips of green—<br />hummingbirds swooping to his feeder.<br />Methodical at every task,<br />each dawn, for them, he'd daub it clean.<br /><br />Always the right word, or none;<br />a grin and a nod meant good.<br />Helped before he was asked.<br />Read to his sons, dried dishes,<br />cleared neighbors' drives, hewed their wood.<br /><br />At eighty, quavering hands;<br />teetering on each threshold.<br />Tenderly he'd loop<br />his wife's last dahlias with string<br />so they could stand.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38596655-116887057903759985?l=holymoleyme.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>The Rascalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00744815775311819914noreply@blogger.com0