“Solo Shot” by Tom Sheehan

One winter in Korea

a violin went awry.

Sound waves thin as

tracers or wires

snipped, cut loose

from redwood stain,

danced over snow fields,

up the mountain hold,

shattered the air

with heart’s recovery,

tore stiletto quick

through snow’s embalmment,

feather down’s triple

blanketing and brawn.

Some player played defilade,

urged his hands and arms

into the spelling, matched

the sounds in his head

to the passage of fingertips.

Another finger squeezed

a trigger’s tantrum

and Billy Pigg died in my arms

just as the high note

froze on the high air

visible forever,

his last eyes songless.

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Tom Sheehan served with the 31st Infantry Regiment in Korea, 1951. His books are Epic Cures and Brief Cases, Short Spans, Press 53, NC; A Collection of Friends and From the Quickening, Pocol Press, VA.

His work appears in Home of the Brave, Stories in Uniform and Milspeak Anthology, Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience.