This piece is dedicated to the staff of NYLT Troop 3B in 2022, both youth and adult. I thank them for beginning as strangers and like a quilt, becoming something new and greater than any of the individual parts. It was my pleasure and honor to be Scoutmaster for the team, June 25 through July 2. May they all be blessed as I was through the experience.

Bang, bang,

Pause,

Giggle

Whispers in the night, even in the day

call, challenge, even drive.

Concepts blown on the wind,

images form and reform,

until one dominates the view

At the end of May

     We remember

Remember all those who serve

     and have served

That we may be free

Our heroes for a modern day.

His back was slightly hunched, as if he used those muscles in ways most people don't. His neck seemed long as he stretched to look at you more closely, in an almost predatory way. His hair was unkempt and wild, coming to points above his ears. And, he seemed to always scowl, sitting on his front porch in the old neighborhood, as if guarding something.