END OF THE WAR

          Nageezi, New Mexico, 1972

          Up front he sits on steps by the driver

          on the windy stretch past Cuba--

          "Pray for those on Highway 44" the saying goes.

         

                             "Goin' home! Long time 'way from this place.

                             Wife pickin' me up. You know?  She waitin' there,

                             you know, up there by Nageezi?

                             Pretty-good-all right, that one.

                             You know I never seen my boy.  Gotta picture here,

                             but I never seen him yet...been gone long time,

                             fightin' all time, two years...see here,

                             look pretty-good-all right, my boy.

                             No, I never seen him yet...

                             I wasn't goin' drinkin', but those guys say,

                             'Hey man, come on, one more!' Yeah...

                             They good guys to me, you know?`

                             We all comin' home.

                             Hey, driver, sure good bein' home, see my son.

                             Over by Nageezi; you know that place?

                             She goin' be right there.  Waitin' there."

          Crowded bus of grandmothers and boarding school students,

          sleeping mostly.

          And the serviceman in uniform sits thinking now

          on the steps by the driver's seat

          on the dark stretch past Cuba.

         

          Abrupt jerk of gears rouse passengers slunk in seats

          in the lightless night in the desert wind.

          The air of brakes; the bus stops.

          He sways off the Trailways

          and limps slowly down the dark, empty road.

                                                -- C. S. Cholas