Luzon Bill

NaPoWiMo - Day 17 - Write a portrait poem. Your poetic portrait can be of anyone: and it doesn’t have to cover the whole of someone’s life or try to wrap them up with a bow. It just has to try to give a sense of that person. Any form, any style. On your mark, get set, go!

Luzon Bill

His uniforms were always tailored

and he looked so good on leave,

in a small rural community,

they would sell him bananas without a ration card.

One hundred thirty pounds when he came home,

and no one ever questioned his authority,

yet he never raised his voice.

He cared for both his wife and mother

like it was an honor.

He knew how to treat a woman

and how to raise his girls,

with courage, confidence and poise.

In 1964 he almost won the Abe Lincoln

look-alike contest.

It was the only time anyone ever saw him

without a clean shaven face.

He was a stickler about shoes,

always clean and polished.

Could make a bed better than his wife.

Finished everything he started.

Could fix anything anytime,

cars, motorcycles, wheelbarrows,

a sticky door, a broken heart,

except the ones he left when he died.