Love Scribbles for Uncle Jim

Love Scribbles for Uncle Jim

For Uncle James Edgar Bradshaw

“Please write the scribbles, Mommy.”

Very young but proud,

Uncle Jim was on a big battleship

In a place called Viet Nam.

Mom would write him letters

So he could hear from home,

And I wanted to write too

‘Though I knew not how.

But,

I could copy whatever Mommy scribbled.

I would dictate;

She would print;

Then I would copy each mark painstakingly

In my little girl hand…

My brother Eric would draw letters too

And little Victor in diapers still

Would stab a paper now and then…

Uncle Jim must know we love him,

Or he might die.

I remember the family eating in Huntington

Before he left.

I remember Grandma crying

When she thought she was alone.

Grandpa grew more silent…

“Please write the scribbles, Mommy.”

Uncle Jim must know I love him,

Or he might die.

© Copyright, Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw, 2000.