Past the musket-barrel fence with bayonets forever fixed
you drove me, bright shining in my new cub-scout uniform,
my arms cradling a million little flags
for the graves of legendary knights from the Civil War.
You said you wanted little boys putting flags on your grave.
Though both you and dad worked full time
you always found time to read me poems
and dad would read to me about King Arthur.
When he PCS'ed to Europe, you and I saw the Poet's Corner
and we discovered the Vienna cemetery for composers.
With all this death it's funny how you couldn't let me go,
when I had a brain hemorrhage while lecturing
about infinite sequences of complex numbers,
but instead begged the neurosurgeon to let me live.
I know the feeling.
When cancer came to you, what could I do?
I took you to see Traviata, Magic Flute, and Messiah
(maybe it would help)
and Camelot (knowing how you like Robert Goulet)...
in the end cancer, coupled with a stroke, overcame.
Quiet as Mimi, your breath left.
Dad and I, like the 4 bohemians, could do nothing.
Within a week, your grave had a flag.
     

I was born on Nov 4, 1954 in Dubuque, Iowa. I received a BS in Math from UNLV in 1977, enrolling in the Master's program in the fall. In May of 1978, during the last week of the school year, I had a brain hemorrhage (left side, affecting speech and right side of body) while I was lecturing in complex analysis. I completed work for my MS in Math in 1981. I have been working for the US Air Force at Nellis AFB in various computer related jobs (database management, programming, & system administration) since 1982. I've been writing poetry since the late 60's, and (since 1995) been published in The NeoVictorian, Jones Av, The Lyric, Feelings, Oatmeal & Poetry, Dusk & Dawn, Poet's Fantasy, and Starburst as well as a number of poetry anthologies. I write mainly formal verse, but some free verse and short stories. Usually my writing deals with religious, philosophical, and historical themes. The poem, "Memorial Day", deals with the life & death of my mother, Helen Tammen Meyer, who died in 1995.

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