Off Duty

Dusk
along the lane
only foundations remained
we traced them with our feet
stumbling occasionally

I stood inside one
he – just outside the one next door
for one moment
music lingered on the warm humid breeze
in September of 1941
there was no carnage

The old runway
evoked pre-dawn mornings
the palpable drone of engines
the smell of aircraft fuel

Ford Island
lay in the protected womb of Pearl Harbor

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