N  a  p a  l  m     H  e  a  l  t  h     S  p  a  :     R  e  p  o  r  t     2  0  0  7

 

 

SAM ABRAMS

 

 

It Is Good

 

to be understood

 

crew working

in the manholes on my street

 

one guy

with a hooked crowbar

flipping

300 pound manhole

covers off and on

 

so shooting the shit

I told when I was union laborer

I once helped move

in a confined space

an 8 ton beam

 

he got it right right off

said huh

better you than me

 

everywhere

brothers who’ve

done tough stuff

this world’s work

 

solidarity forever

it is good

 

 

 

 

Battle Honor

 

late great dear nat furster

my father’s golf partner

my sorta uncle

 

jumped into Normandy

82nd airborne

those flooded fields

waist deep many

buddies drowned

 

fought

all the way through

to berlin

fought

in hurtgen forest

where the 2 airborne divisions

stopped a whole fuckin panzer army

 

i hear him now

hear his soul

crying from the grave

sick sobbing so shamed

crying

for his old unit’s crimes

at abu ghraib