A Letter from Red Bluff
By A Michigan Skylark
I. Andrew and Jesse
Washing up the plates from supper
—him, suds to the elbows, and me, drying,
kinda casual, he'd asked for paper
(an ask so small, it was hardly any ask at all).
I got him the best I had,
best pencil, too,
(only a little chewed and as sharp as penknife could fashion).
I didn't think to ask him why.
I'd've give him anything of mine he'd asked,
so proud to have something he'd want,
proud to give my best to him who always gave his best for me:
time no man before had had to spare
a hand to steady, not to steer
a neutral ear for all I had to say.
Before I was one, he took me for a man,
told me straight when I was wrong
and told me once.
He only taught what I could bear to learn
how words kill slow, like poison in a wound
how bad men are saved and good men ruined.
Though there might be
a hundred wrecking things to need his watching
—just a half-tick slower than the flash of his hand
he always kept one eye on me.
And when the walnut handle jangled in my sweating palm
and all my shots flew wide and wild,
he waited calm, as though he'd set aside all day for this,
and gave instructions clear and plain:
"That's better. Now, try again."
II. Andrew and Matthew
Eyeing the rambling script with a critical squint,
my brother sighed:
"I wish he'd learn to write."
I crowded close to get a look at this
his first letter home to us.
It was just one page of paper, altogether,
in pencil (mine?) and smudged, some,
its postmark worn away by weather.
But in every line his fine voice rang.
And wrung, I missed my absent friend
and wished him
home.
*AS*JH*AS*
*JH*AS*JH
*Hats*Scorpions*Hats*Scorpions*Hats*Scorpions*Hats*
*AS*JH*AS*
*JH*AS*JH
Note: In addition to writing letters, Jess also receives letters: from Vic Stoddard, from Dan Preston, from a "friend in Galveston," and from Jenny Hawks. Though it's not objective proof that he's written to them, how else would they know where to write to him? How would Annie Whittaker and Billy Jacobs (and Major Stanton) know where to find him if he didn't write to them? Why doesn't he write to either kid-sister Francie or big-sister Francie? That's a poem for another day.
