Benicia Love Poem: If I Had Known You When You Were..........

If I Had Known You When You Were.......... by Marlene Hitt

A newborn, your face red and creased
I’d have had no hope for you, or when
you embarrassed your mother during prayers
I’d not have liked you. Or
when you were whooping and hollering
bareback on your pony, even when later
with your dog, the crazy one. I
wouldn’t have liked you,
for you would have been like other boys,
making me be the army nurse, then
whisking off to a battlefield far away
where I wouldn’t see you for the rest of the day.
I would not have liked you!
If I had known you, been with you,
as you knelt in rice paddies through the cold night
when you had not bathed away the stench of fear,
when you pointed with your marksman’s skill,
No, I wouldn’t have liked you if I had known you then.
I know you now, and I love you.