when I was watching
an interview with a veteran
who had had to observe
atomic bomb explosions
him sitting there
with this baseball mitt
on his right hand
with cuts back and forth
from him to scenes of
soldiers in the desert
the flash of light
the mushroom clouds
black and white films
like we had in high school
the terrible beauty
born here in the good
old US of A and
how he did his duty
did what they told
him to do and
then
wondering why
he had that baseball mitt on
during the whole
interview
I realized
it was not a
baseball mitt
that was
his
hand
those
his
fingers.