Unsettled, we described him,
cousin Sam fresh out of Vietnam.
He shucked his uniform,
disparaged military obligation,
swore he’d never again be obliged.
Soon took off for parts unknown,
no cards, no calls.
He passed through twenty years ago
and saw nothing was the same
as he remembered.
Said he might as well be a stranger
somewhere else.
Body or bones, he’d be eighty now –
probably rootless, homeless, friendless,
but without obligations.
