A Path Appears

Dad survived the Nazi tiger tanks
in the Battle of the Bulge,
He brought home a derringer with hidden trigger
that shines today like a new dime.
It was hidden under the afghan
of a German grandmother in a wheelchair
who tried to shoot him
when the MPs were searching out
storm troopers
hiding in her farmhouse.

He brought home an officer’s luger
that fittingly jams every other round,
a cigar box of unpinned medals
and a photo of two silent U-2 rockets
which he proudly
straddles.

Twenty years after that
at the supper table
he offered,
if I had sense enough
to smell the madness
of Vietnam,
he’d drive me to Canada himself
any time.

Sixty-five years after that
in Elmcroft Nursing Home
he claimed
to not remembering
ever giving advice
that important.







Image
Charles W. “Bud” Gibbons, III, Professor Emeritus at Penn State University, retired in 2015 after teaching art at the university level since 1973. Gibbons is represented at Agora Gallery and Art Advice Corporation Art Consultants, in NY, G Squared Gallery, Inc. in PA and Garden Gallery in VT. He has painted on location globally, received recognitions at international, national and local levels, and is included in private, corporate and museum collections worldwide. www.budgibbons.com

Words
Denny Kolakowski is an writer and engineer living near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with wife Vickie.  His poems have appeared in Scarlet Leaf Review, Poetry Pacific, Quail Bell Magazine, Summerset Review, Visitant, and elsewhere.  His published writings have also included essays, short stories and screenplays.  He is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writer’s Association.  www.sleepingdragonproductions.com