Pearl Harbor

she was holding a bag of blood or morphine

he was so young and good-looking and blown

apart, both his legs off at the knee

still conscious he asked

her to kiss him

she was twenty, she kissed him but

he was a dead man by then

his lips were warm

her red lipstick left some color on them

what did she know, walking talking conscripted

a civil service paycheck, secretary pool

suddenly it was wartime, she was holding

a bag of blood or morphine

his hand when he died, then it was on to

the next man, and the next, December 7, 1941

everyone was a medic that day, she said

---

Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Mudlark No. 33
Contents | Photograph of Eleanor as a Hula Girl, 1943