Life of Simplicity

he never knew his father
nor his mother but had
siblings older and younger
who were adopted outright
leaving his alone...  it was
the strangers to which he
objected as their lack of
caring meant nothing to him;
it was the military that had
captured his attention and 
took him out of high school
and into the rice fields of
Vietnam...  it was his mind
that betrayed him, causing
no fear of death each time
he ventured into the bush;
it was the doctors who said
he was disabled when he
returned home and it was
his neighbors who called
him the crazy one...  he lived
the lie for fifty years and one
day when mowing his lawn,
he fell off the zero turn, falling
dead on the hard ground...
his third wife buried him and
the preacher said a few nice 
words not really knowing who
he was or had become...  his
rank was not high enough to
earn rifles but a trans soldier
played the bugle and white
roses were tossed into the hole
after his casket hit bottom;
he was a man of no seasons
a man of complexity that lived
and died a life of simplicity.

May 6, 2024