Drum Minor

I marched the football field.
One end to the other end repeatedly.
I scored a great many touchdowns.
No one kept score.

I marched as much as humanly possible
in a non-marshal manner.
I did carry a long paper tube baton and twirled it,
but that was to keep mosquitoes away.

Much of the time I marched I pretended
I was part of a drum and bugle corp band.
The rest of the time I marched I pretended
I was a protester near the White House.

There was some overlap in my pretending.
It was not my intention to interrupt
the President’s tea with India’s ambassador
with a hundred and twenty bandmates.

The geese at the nearby lake
paid me little heed after they learned
that I did not bring them any bread
and honked their disappointment.

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copyright © 2019 Kenneth P. Gurney