Bio: Gary Margolis is Director of the Center for Counseling and  Human  Relations and Associate Professor of English at Middlebury  College. His  most recent book of poems is "Fire in the Orchard"(Autumn House  Press). This selection is from his new manuscript,
"The Other Flag". 

Spear Street

Suddenly I can’t remember
   the name of the street I’ve driven
a thousand times that looks out
   to the lake, where the city 

has paved enough spaces
   for a few cars to park
in its fancy neighborhood.
   So anyone can be a tourist,

stopping to see the sun paint
   the islands and the shimmering
water. Bill, my neighbor, says
   the mind is a willow, so

when the April wind drives through,
   only the living branches
are left and they are nameless.
   Last March I remember I saw

a van parked there and, beside it,
   two men sunning in their
mechanical chairs, attended
   by other men from the state.

I could see their jackets sewn
   with maps of Kuwait,
a desert we stormed with tanks,
   planes, and, now we are told,

a disabling gas, when—see, I can’t
   remember his name—tried to
steal what we thought of
   as our oil. These vets have their arms

and legs the wind hasn’t taken,
   but anyone can see their mouths
are crooked, their lips uneven.
   Anyone can see they need someone

to wipe their spit away, so they
   won’t drown and remember
it wasn’t a spear that cut their nerves,
   that left them facing the lake.

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Copyright 2007, Gary Margolis.
 All Rights Reserved by Author.