Pen Pal
by
Peggy Trojan
The
Evening Telegram printed
names
of soldiers wanting mail.
Mother
chose Robert Smith.
Wrote,
in teacher’s Palmer script,
of
ordinary happenings
in
our little Wisconsin town.
What
birds were at the feeder,
the
fox or deer she saw,
how
much snow fell,
hoping
he was doing well.
Nothing
sad or troublesome.
She
wrote often, all during the war.
Sometimes,
a letter thanking her
would
come from a distant battle place,
with
the military post mark.
A.P.O.
45, New York
censored
by army examiner.
War
ended in August, ’45.
The
following Christmas,
a
card arrived
showing
a black man
sitting
by the decorated tree.
He
was afraid, if she knew,
letters
“from home” would stop.
It
made no difference, she confided.
He
was fighting for us all,
and
she was his pal.
For
more than fifty years,
his
greeting was saved in her shoebox
with
anniversary cards from Pa,
and
fancy old valentines.
They
didn’t write much longer.
He
was back home then,
and
that war was over.
~
first published in Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar
