The Wake-Up Call Poem by Stanley Cooper

Keesler Field, Mississippi
Air Force Basic Training
World War Two
Each and every 4: 30am
The barracks loud-speaker
Sadistically demanded
“You gotta get up”
And with added impertinence
“Rise and Shine”

Well
They made me
Get and rise up
But they couldn’t force me to
Shine
I wouldn’t shine
I didn’t shine
I refused to shine
I GLOWERED

Glowering
Each and every day
I became a masterful
Glower-er
I was a citizen
Free, at least, to
Glower

That’s the American way