He never seems to talk about it,
not really
Not the stories that I want to hear,
the ones I've seen on the Cineworld screen.
Not the real stories.
He tells about the time he cut a dozen lines
for the morse code machines, by accident,
and how all the squaddies used to call him
'Taf' (seeing as how he was a Welshman).
He tells me how he could have had
a genuine samurai sword
if not for being sent home early,
(sick with some disease or other)
two weeks before it was all over.
But he never really talks about Burma,
about the jungles and mosquito heat,
sweat streaming into your shirt and the fear
of every sound in the jungle
That I can only imagine, and wonder
how much I've invented.
Sometimes on the BBC, they'll show
'Bridge Over The River Kwy”
and I'll watch him remember,
in silence, and still I'll think about,
the one fragment he let slip,
enemies approaching, all the men armed,
a machine gun thrust into his hands and,
over his shoulder, a satchel full of ammo.