Ahhhh.....life in the lounge!

Yeah, ain't it great sitting in the airline lounge?!
The Delta Crown Room at Newark is a real oasis.

I sit here pondering my deployment as I get ready to head down to the CRC (CONUS Replacement Center) at Fort Benning, Georgia - and ship out from there to Iraq.
Alas and alack...flights to Atlanta are canceled because of weather, and so back to the starting point and do this all again tomorrow.

When a person is mobilized, there is process of disengagement...I quietly go around detaching from people and things as I build my personal defense mechanisms to deal with being away. Of course, the people left behind do the same thing too... So naturally, saying goodbye is not something you want to do twice!

The thing about the Army is that if you know you are going to miss duty there is a compelling desire to tell all and sundry that you can't make it. In my case, there is no way to get to Atlanta, but the first thing I did was notify the CRC. Almost like telling a parent that you are going to be delayed coming home from the movies. I guess it's the legality of it all...But, there is a strange sense of comfort in checking in too. perhaps it is that one has someone that cares where I am and why I am not there
Of course with my regular civilian job I would tell them I would be delayed also, but somehow if I didn't all would be well.

As I start this blog I guess I better put up a poem too...Something about love, or losing it or whatever...

Dancing This Life

Dancing this life with damaged women,
It is my own dry emptiness that drags me to them…
Flailing like a floundering lifeguard,
Needing my own rescue,
As much as seeking theirs.

If only I could really encompass them-
Staying permanently lost,
In a tiny patch of freckled skin,
Behind my lover’s ear.

There would be no thinking then.
Only laying with her, quietly entwined,
With my lips to her ear,
Breathing into her mind,
Just letting her sleep.

June 2007