Flutter Kick

By William Meyers

I was swimming
Flutter kick after flutter kick
Stroke after stroke
Breath after breath
Flip turn after flip turn
Lap after lap
In my high school's heated swimming pool.

They were peasants
Young men my age
Given six weeks of training
Eager to fight the invaders.

They attacked the American camp
Charging, firing,
Footstep after footstep
Wound after wound
Death after death
In a minor skirmish in Vietnam.

I heard Walter Cronkite
Give the body count the next day.

You ask me how I got here
Foot in mouth
One eye turned to the past
One eye turned to the future?

In 1971
I was swimming
Flutter kick after flutter kick
Stroke after stroke
Lap after lap
In a heated high school swimming pool
In Jacksonville, Florida.

Copyright 2014 by William P. Meyers, all rights reserved