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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Desert Bloom” Down in the Dirt, v185 (the July 2021 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Lockdown’s Over the Down in the Dirt May-August 2021 issues collection book		get the 420 page May-August 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Nostalgia For A Time That Never Was, Or, Scenes Beyond The Veterans Home And Hospital (#4)

Kenneth DiMaggio

Mac & Cheese
harder than the plastic
fork you stab the tiny
macorinis with

Your cup of Jell-O
that never stopped wobbling
even after you put down your tray

Along the wall tin shields of various
Army and Marine divisions
(and many of them with skulls
crisscrossed with bayonets and
gun muzzles)

Welcome to dinner
at the Veterans Home & Hospital

And as the Creative Writing
Professor for a few former
soldiers marines or Seabees
I was often invited to stab
the food and watch the dessert
wobble

“Don’t worry fellah,” an old vet
at my table said to me:
who never picked up a rifle;
only the latest work of experimental
provocative & groundbreaking fiction

“Like you, when I first came here,
I had war written all over my face.”

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