Beauty for Ashes Poetry Review

Gary Fincke

The Higher Ground Of The Fascists

"Well then, they should have shot you too,"
My uncle said, having offered
A choice between the protesters
And the authority of the Guard.
He was sick of my mutton chops
And mustache. Most of all, he hated
How I thought I knew the world better
Than he did without picking up
A gun or grenade or the gumption
To wear a uniform with pride.
Now I was back home from Kent State
Where classes were canceled because
Of maligners, or worse, like me,
And my father, the one brother who
Hadn't aimed and fired at Nazis, sat
Silently through that oral exam
For loyalty, my uncle saying,
"Gary, look at yourself," putting it
Like a bonus question, extra
Credit for our undrafted family,
Waiting while I drifted to France
Where men who followed my uncle
Were estimating their odds against
The higher ground of the Fascists,
Each of them looking at my uncle
And waiting for his lips to form "Now."

Gary Fincke is the Writer's Institute Director at Susquehanna University. His book, The Almanac for Desire from BMK Press will be available April 2000. He has work in the Paris Review, The Iowa Review and The Southern Review.




Isaiah 61:1-3

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