4. Strange

He felt foreign

in the land they called his.

His back bent —

not just from rickets,

but from years that never ended.

His girlfriend gave him a painting:

a bamboo,

soft lines, water green.

"In China," she said,

"bamboo means style.

To be called bamboo

is to be called graceful."

He carried two world wars

like some carry childhood.

He didn’t want to be stone.

Not statue.

Not solid.

He wanted to be bamboo.

To bend.

To rise.

To whisper in storms

and not break.