Fifteen Marines

I am putting things away to prepare for our trip to Idaho.
Instead of re-shelving Paul's book of poems, 

opened it and found this poem. Since this is the Memorial Day weekend, 

I thought it might be a good choice to unpause this blog. In this photo 

from a long-ago Yuki Teikei Haiku Society winter holiday party,
Paul is in the dark red shirt at far left. 

He is giving Betty Arnold encouraging feedback on her reading, 

as her husband, Jim (in black shirt) looks on and smiles.
Paul's wife, KerryLynn, looks on from the right. 

You can just see the host, Patrick Gallagher, beyond the white doorframe. 

Today, Fifteen Marines

Today, fifteen marines 
fell in a helicopter--the same kind
you called a flying coffin--the one
they flew you in from Kaneohe Bay
to Barber's Point.  And I,

this late night in Illinois
think of you in Yuma, your burr cut,
your straightened back, your look,
on duty or asleep, way off, and of
those others once again.

Tonight, in their selected trees,
the hawks are sleeping, marsh and red-tail.
Knobby talons grip the limbs,
fierce eyes closed for now. Come dawn,
look sharp, my sons, look very sharp.

Growing in the Rain; 
poems by Paul O. Williams, page 44.

The structure of this three-stanza poem could serve as a template for one of your own. In the first stanza, there is the thing that caused you to begin to wonder and think. In the second, an associated memory; and in the final stanza an associated nature image. Each stanza is placed in a specific place. I would love to see any of your resulting poems!