Didn't people die every day that you did whatever it was that you did before the day that you died? All while the uncomfortable truth emerged and whispered that you made no good goddamn difference, while the others stress to burnish into new time the lie that says that even that has got to stand good for something, even if, in truth, it was good for absolutely nothing.
Monday, September 20, 2021
Private First Class Lesley L. Matheson, U.S. Army
That's a portraiture of my Great [Maternal] Uncle, Pvt. 1st Class Lesley L. Matheson, U.S. Army, 50th Engineer Combat Battalion, which hangs prominently on my home office wall. He was killed by the Imperial Japanese Army in battle on October 25, 1944 while fighting in the Pacific theatre in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was the first time the Japanese pilots used kamikazi tactics. Uncle Lesley's Service Number is 34500566. He was buried at sea.
His ghostly image.