My turn had come;
Billy Pigg, helmet lost,
shrapnel alive in him,
blood free as air,
dying in my arms.
Billy asked a blessing, had
none since birth. My canteen
came his font. Then he said,
“I never loved anybody.
Can I love you?" My father told me,
his turn long gone downhill;
“Keep water near you, always."
He thought I’d be a priest before
all this was over, not a lover.