She hangs a picture of her grandson Tyrone
In the hallowed space on her wall
Between JFK and Martin Luther King
When news of the JFK assassination came cross the TV
She was doing her daughter’s hair
She dropped the hot comb and burned her daughter’s leg
When King was killed, she spilled coffee all over her nurse’s uniform
But yesterday, when the men in uniforms came to her door, she already knew
She knew by the knots in her stomach, by the way
She couldn’t unclench her fists, by the half moons
Embedded in her palms when she finally could
She raised Tyrone
She taught him how to tie his shoes
She kissed his knee when he fell off his bike
She told him not to chew with his mouth open
On Friday nights Tyrone use to score touchdowns
The other boys, bigger boys could never catch him
She watched and remembered how hard it was for her
To catch him when he was running from a spanking or a bath
Tyrone ran for almost a thousand yards
He ran away from bigger boys but couldn’t run from
Roadside bombs near Iraqi highways
Tyrone looked good in his uniform
His daddy was a soldier and a good man before
Vietnam messed up his mind; he also looked good in his uniform
Mrs. Williams remembers the night Tyrone came home from the recruiter
They sat together at the kitchen table. He showed her green books
Made like magazines, he showed her pictures of men with painted faces
Who held machine guns like reapers hold sickles
He showed her the color pictures of Army Unit patches:
Black Horse,
1st Cav,
Old Iron Sides,
82nd Airborne
He wanted to jump out of planes like they did on Army of One commercials
He wanted to blouse dress green pants over spit shined jump boots
He wanted to wear a beret with his uniform
Tyrone came home from Basic Training with a high and tight haircut
He wore a T-shirt that read ³Kill em All and let God sort em’ out²
Mrs. Williams wondered what happened to the little boy
Who use to be scared of the cookie monster
She found a pack of cigarettes on Tyrone’s dresser next to
A lighter with an American flag and a blond in a bikini painted on it
Tyrone didn’t smoke cigarettes before he enlisted
She wondered what else he did or would do, that he hadn’t done before
When he left after his two weeks leave he wore his dress greens
He stuck out his chest, he was very proud of his expert grenade and rifle badges
He stayed in the mirror a long time to make sure the class A cap fit just right
She wishes she had had enough money to send Tyrone to college
He got a football scholarship to a small Christian school in the Mid-West
Tyrone said the only black people in the town were the two that were on the
Football team with him and the three on the basketball team
He didn’t like the way people looked at him,
It was not safe to go on dates with white girls
Mrs. Williams remembers asking him why he wanted to enlist
Tyrone said because he wanted to make something out of his life
Because he wanted to be somebody
She told him he already was somebody
But Tyrone didn’t believe it
Mrs. Williams is not happy that her daughter is dead
But she is thankful that her daughter didn’t live long enough
To have to bury her only child
She wishes her husband was still alive so she wouldn’t have to
Make the funeral arrangements by herself
She does not have to worry about what to bury Tyrone in
There is not enough of Tyrone’s body for an open casket
Tomorrow, she will go to visit Tyrone’s father at the VA
She hopes the doctors will tell her not to inform him of his son’s death
Mrs. Williams doesn’t know how to tell him,
Though she has practiced several times in the mirror
And surrendered to tears each time
Tonight, the ladies from the church will come to check on her
Thelma, Reese, Daisy and Ann
They will tell her, ³The Lord don’t put no more on you than you can bear²
They will tell her, it will be hard, but she will make it through because
She knows Jesus
Mrs. Williams is glad she knows Jesus
But she wants to know why her grandson was taken away from her
On an Iraqi highway
Near a town with a name
She cannot even pronounce
Howard L. Craft is a poet, playwright, arts educator and Gulf War era vet. He has recently completed The Vet Who Lived Underground: Dispatches from Beneath the Map, a full-length play that deals with the struggles of a veteran returning home from the Gulf War, and his take on the current situation in Iraq. Howard plans to direct and produce The Vet in January 2005.
