“Solo Shot” by Tom Sheehan
One winter in Korea
a violin went awry.
Sound waves thin as
tracers or wires
snipped, cut loose
from redwood stain,
danced over snow fields,
up the mountain hold,
shattered the air
with heart’s recovery,
tore stiletto quick
through snow’s embalmment,
feather down’s triple
blanketing and brawn.
Some player played defilade,
urged his hands and arms
into the spelling, matched
the sounds in his head
to the passage of fingertips.
Another finger squeezed
a trigger’s tantrum
and Billy Pigg died in my arms
just as the high note
froze on the high air
visible forever,
his last eyes songless.
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Tom Sheehan served with the 31st Infantry Regiment in Korea, 1951. His books are Epic Cures and Brief Cases, Short Spans, Press 53, NC; A Collection of Friends and From the Quickening, Pocol Press, VA.
His work appears in Home of the Brave, Stories in Uniform and Milspeak Anthology, Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience.
My favorite poem now!
…a trigger’s tantrum
this is chilling. Wonderful. Thank you.