Arizona Monument, Pearl Harbor

Memorial Day should be held memorable.

Especially when living in Japan and teaching there, I learned that the state sponsored textbooks refer to December 6th, 1941, as “The Battle of Pearl Harbor.”  Perhaps the Japanese tourists at the monument to the sunken battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor today might learn something closer to the truth.

Such teaching might also offer an argument against Core Curriculum.

Therefore, holding to our word and keeping Memorial Day memorable, we offer a poem.

NINETEEN 45

Aunt Betty was so tired of dating soldiers.
Uncle Frank had had it for uniforms.
Handsome as a movie star, he was one
of the few in a suit at the Saturday dance.

Not long after, Mr. Azevedo drove out
to the Baggesi farm and informed Carmela,
busy picking tomatoes in the garden:
“My Frank, he gonna marry your Betty.”

Maybe the Big One’s last casualty, 1995—
soldier to husband, family farmer— that amoeba
hitching inside from the Pacific Solomons, 1945,
ate slowly into Frank’s core until his final gasps
echoed off hospital walls like exploding shells.

JoCo