Gwendolyn’s Kaleidoscope

Visualize

As willow trees bend

A half-moon outhouse

Grandpa’s princess dancing in the dusty road

Queen of the May, decades ago

Daddy’s gone to Korea on a big ship

I’m too young to realize the graveness

Mother, me, and brother Butch

Living in Floyd Terrace, up on the hill

Alameda at night

Searching for Daddy

As soldiers disembark

In the night mist

Home again

Great adventure at six

Wilmington to Dover, corpman’s delight

Chasing a young girl in flight, too many shots in my arm

Coast to coast by train to board a great ship

U.S.S. O’Henry, leaving Seattle in the rain

Along the gang plank, one by one, off to see Daddy

In a faraway place, the land of the Rising Sun

Roses for me, a kiss for Mom

A handshake for Butch and Al

Cousin Moses came to say how do

From Yokohama to Gifu, three years

Laced with burdensome snow, torrential monsoons

The smell of cherry blossoms in the spring

A short stop to visit with grandpa and grandma

Brothers three, a sister at last

Lynford Hall, and English estate in the 50’s

A quaint village, Mildenhall is where I live

I meet a young English girl, Judy, oh, I have a new friend

Kings and Queens, museums galore

History abounds, the Tower of London

Anne Boleyn

Will I ever stay in one place long enough to

Keep my friends

5:00 a.m., to the mess hall for a gastronomical feast

London bound for a flight, Boeing 747

My 60’s treat, land of Adolf Hitler

An historical event

The Berlin Wall

A Rhine River cruise

Meanders through the German countryside

Dreams of castles, King Ludwig and Hitler’s Retreat

High in the mountains, covered with snow

Towering excitement generates the air

Summer 1963, a Wiesbaden cheer, J.F.K. at the Von Steubin

Months later, one fateful night

Across the airwaves, death of J.F.K., sombers the evening

A secured childhood passes away, civil rights

Exciting news, I’m going home

Five years, a long time

Along the way, one last sibling, foreign born

Eagerness dies as I return to country about to erupt

Poisonous venom from slithering vipers, riots

Harsh realities….

At sixteen

1 February 1994