Thanksgiving

I am a teen
At Thanksgiving
Smelling turkey stuffing
Tasting homemade gravy
Rolls pumpkin pie watching
Our dinner guest Major Manit
Of the Thai Air Force who is
Training at Randolph Air
Force base asked by
My father to join us
For a shared meal
At which I inquire
As a Buddhist
He can bomb
The enemy
He replies
Bombs
Look
Like
Flowers
But my Dad
Stops this line
Of questioning
And later my little
Brother on the porch
Swats a fly making Major
Manit wince and we all
Realize as a Buddhist
All life is sacred but
We ignore the red
Carcass on the
White table
Cloth just
Another
Poppy
At play
In the fields
Of the Lord and
Major Manit goes
Off to war trained to
Live in two worlds at
Once on land in the air.
Years later I read about
His service and think of
Him each Thanksgiving
Thankful I never had to
Take another’s life
And pretend it
Was a flower
But know it
Was a red
Poppy.