Peace ... good will ...
Are worn threadbare.
The words:
Angels, shepherds, Magi,
Stable and moving Star
Obsolete.
My gifts:
A new pin-up--my girl in her wedding gown;
(She married the fellow at home.)
A new rifle.
The cry of a child dying--
(Not of the Babe, new-born)
The footfalls of communism in the distance--
Not receding--
And two years in the army.
I am only a soldier--
But a new star rises in Nevada,
Holy and Chill.
