Double Tragedy! Poem by Eric Cockrell

when they notified him
that his only son had been
killed in Afghanistan...

he went out in the yard
and draped an American flag
across the windshield of
his '57 chevy...
and drenching it in gasoline,
he set it ablaze...

and he sat on the porch
with his Vietnam Vet hat
pulled down low over his eyes...
sipping good Kentucky bourbon...

when it had burnt down
and he could hear the sirens,
he took the 38 caliber smith and wesson
from his lap, and putting it to his temple,
pulled the trigger!

in the paper they called it
a double tragedy!