Merciless

I am 26 taking my kids
To the Saturday Morning
Fun Club at the university
To see Flash Gordon while
The kids throw paper planes.
My three sons are close to the
Screen looking up as the film
Begins to introduce each
Character when the evil
Emperor Ming the
Merciless sneers
At the audience,
I hear my nine
Year old son
Walter’s
Moan,
“Why
Did
He
Have
To be called that?”
His brothers
Both laugh
Thinking
The
Same
Thing too
Happy to care,
But Walter is the
Eldest and wears his
Heart on his sleeve all
His short life, as a boy, a
Teenager, a young man, and
A southern soldier boy far
From his home overseas
In Europe, then the blue
Pacific where he lost
His youngest
Daughter
After his
Wife,
And then
His own life
In service to
His country as
His brothers did
After him, all Sargents
In the Army, all dedicated.
Walter’s question in the
Dark theatre as to why
Ming was called the
Merciless was an
Enigma to a soul
Who liked the
Three Stooges,
Jerry Lewis movies,
And characters pure
Of heart like himself who
Accepted so much at
Face value whose
Innocence was
Sincere and
So I heard
Him ask
And
Knew
The answer
Would never
Escape my lips.
He was one of my
Adopted sons, precious
To me as the son I
Fathered, all were
Treated equally,
All loved for
Their own
Unique
Self,
All
As merciful
As soldiers
Can be,
But I
Am
No soldier.