WAR STORY # 116: Tom Brady Look-Alike
by Paul David Adkins
It’s Tom Brady in a Soldier suit,
gripping an M-16.
He sleeps on a bench
at the airfield.
He’s Tom’s spitting image:
white teeth, perfect face --
lean and tall.
The girls glance twice,
dream.
Two sergeants
crawl up and scream
Incoming!
It’s almost a surprise
he isn’t Tom Brady at all
but a scared kid
soft as dough, a boy
raised on milk and laughter,
praise and gifts,
never dreaming the world
is this hard-edged thing
full of men he should trust
laughing instead
as they rip him
from his roots.