My Uncle, the War

veteran assembled car radios
for General Motors Delco before and after
the U.S. Army honored him with a chest full of medals

then sent him home with Vietnamese silver in a leg.
Later he built clocks and potato boxes,
his retirement pension checks piling up inside

the deep freeze out in his garage, where he’d also hide
cartons of cigarettes and whiskey pints  
for unknown emergencies.

—

Brian Beatty