Since 1877 the U. S. Army stationed soldiers on Fort Huachuca, an Army post in southern Arizona. Although the mission has changed over the years, America's soldiers still come and go in the service of their country. Thomas Decker, who served as the Installation Staff Chaplain from 1996 through 2000, opens a soulful window into this historic post and the surrounding region. Echoing the Army Chaplaincy's credo to bring God to soldiers and soldiers to God, Decker's free verse poems-"Alibi Round," "The Water Nazi," "Reptilian," "Disarming Abernathy," "Finding Religion," "Border Crossing," "No Black Eye for America," and "Semper Fi"-offer poignant and passionate insight into Army life both on and off duty.
Dry Heat
Light & Life on an Arizona Army PostBy Tom DeckerAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2010 Tom Decker
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-7474-6 Contents
You gotta get up..................................................1Heaven............................................................2Monsoons might be early this year.................................3The Water Nazi....................................................4Reptilian.........................................................5Watch your step, especially in the dark...........................7Rest in Peace.....................................................8Alibi round.......................................................9Veterans..........................................................11Tracked by time...................................................12Government work...................................................13No rocket scientist...............................................14Haberdasher of Tombstone..........................................15Lynda's Barber Shop...............................................16Army housing......................................................19Close quarters....................................................20The shower........................................................21Disarming Abernathy...............................................22Pleasantries of the evening.......................................24Highwater.........................................................27Border crossing...................................................29Show the colors...................................................30Standing invitation...............................................31Pilgrims..........................................................33WWJD..............................................................35Rest top..........................................................36Mystery of the kingdom............................................37Finding religion..................................................38The next town over................................................40The name's Chopin.................................................43Bulletins I, Eschaton.............................................46Bulletins II, Semper..............................................48Bulletins, III. When beads count..................................49Bulletin, IV. Evangel of the world................................50This guy..........................................................51The Intervention Rag..............................................52The salvation beat!...............................................58The bread of life.................................................62Big Appetite......................................................63Sometimes.........................................................64Chapter 9.........................................................65Sunnive and Jon...................................................67Sunnive and Jon II................................................68Baseball's Opener.................................................69No black eye for America..........................................71Dry heat..........................................................73Keepers of the Spirit.............................................74You are sleeping..................................................75A Prayer for the Army's Birthday June 14 1775.....................76
Chapter One
You gotta get up
Assembly sounds at 0555 down on Apache Flats and everybody stands at ease to face the flag pole which the
darkness hides so we listen for the cannon and the piped-in bugle plays reveille and the soldiers all go to present arms which means that
America's Army has begun another day.
Heaven
is the farthest thing from anybody's mind as the car lights on I-10 peek down Texas Canyon
and not one of them thinks one whit about a bunch of soldiers preparing to salute the ag and do a battalion run
all before breakfast. The battalion commander sent an email to say that a couple of chaplain assistants
were real studs because they carried the colors up Laundry Ridge and down again. The communion of saints is
a funny thing to contemplate. And this is as good as it gets.
Monsoons might be early this year
The rest of the country celebrated Spring's floods on the evening news -wet-while Arizona wonders if the dry heat will finally win as arroyos chiseled in stone wait the summer's blue black clouds.
On a good day, the rain comes in a steady downpour that overflows roof lines and flushes gutters to grace salvia and petunias which up to now had only known hand watering against the creeping desert.
This gusher floods dry washes, making them dangerous to cross, but it's all right since folks'll get by for one more year now that the rains have come, but the monsoons will not make the evening news.
The Water Nazi
The Command Sergeant Major on patrol for national interest, prowls the post's streets and alleys listening, listening, listening for the tell-tale tick, tick, tick of a midnight water sprinkler.
The price of green lawns on this Army installation is a nasty gram, courteous but succinct, noting dutifully the post's policy on watering: Saturdays and Tuesdays between 6 and 8 pm.
Lush flower beds and green lawns, bountiful vegetation, beautiful to behold, verdant evidence of caring homeowners and proud gardeners; silent testimony against nocturnal transgressors of post policy that allows all the water you want but only "if the hose is hand held."
Monsoons make honest folks out of people who just want some green grass.
Reptilian
In the dark, while Orion watches, one snake reaches
out to another, maybe six feet; in the dark even more.
Trails and tails cross the road not bothering to wait
for cars. Rattlers, these predawn tattlers of what
it takes to keep the desert at bay
in the dark, proving, I suppose, that God truly
has a sense of design if not humor.
Watch your step, especially in the dark
Looking for snakes, an old habit left over from my youth on the banks of the Last Chance Ditch where garter snakes lay on the banks and slipped into the water as they sensed your presence,
now I walk the dog, one eye peeled, even after dark when loose snakes of the desert hunt under the moon, and slip into the night not unlike me as I round the last hill
with no lights behind the house, thinking that I know where they're apt to lie-even in the dark. Our paths seldom cross .
Is it luck or that I watch where I walk? I never know for sure, and the snakes don't talk.
Rest in Peace
We want to bury him in this here 40 mm shell casing, he was in the Marines first, and then the Army, not that it makes any difference, but we think he'd like that.
Alibi round
Can you believe that this family had their friend's ashes packed into a dummy hand grenade? Least I think it was a dummy. Well the cemetery guy he didn't bat an eye,...