Note: I try to remind people frequently that as a veterans organization, we also welcome contributions from immediate family members of veterans. On that note, I’m thrilled to announce the first contribution to the blog by poet and playwright Leilani Squire, the daughter of a Korean War veteran who served thirty years in the United States Navy. Leilani’s first husband was also a veteran of the Underwater Demolition Teams and the National Guard.
A small flag is stuck in front of each tombstone a few flowers here and there. You don’t move his flag, you lie down beside it next to the colors bleeding inside thoughts I cannot know. Thin shoulders hunch forward, your face hidden in the cup of your hands as your body sinks down inside the earth ready to break through the wooden coffin and make love to him once again. I cry too but unlike your tears mine do not flow. Instead I sit arrested at my desk guilty at looking into your secret promise- your vow- the wish that he’d put the ring on your finger before you kissed the earth before you embraced his grave. Maybe this photograph shouldn’t have been taken. Maybe the photographer should have passed you by. But if he had then I wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t know.
Leilani Squire is a writer, certified creativity coach, and works with active duty, veterans and their families to help them tell their stories through the written word. She is founder and CEO of the nonprofit Returning Soldiers Speak and an associate member of EST/LA where she is also part of their playwrighting unit.
Learn more about the Veterans Repertory Theater here.