The flagpole is gone

There was a WW1 veteran across the street
He put up a flagpole
Now someone has taken it down
Maybe it was too much work for them
I would walk by his apartment
He would come out and walk beside me
He asked “where you going”?
I said “downtown here”
He said “I guess I am too then” and would pinch the fatback of my arm
Hard
We would walk that way, I didn’t have much choice really
He would say “I am blind you know…I was in WW1”
I forget how old he was then but damn old anyway
He always wanted me to come in and sit
He was shot in the leg one week after the war was over
It took a little while for the word to get out to everyone
I suppose
Hey it is over now, we are all friends now, and some day, some day we will even
Use the same money
He was lonely and blind and everything he fought for had been forgotten
Now the flagpole is gone too
I had forgotten about him myself
I just remembered him through its absence