From Our Album

I.“Before the War” “Before the war” means Fresno, a hedged-in house, two dogs in the family. Blackie, the small one, mine, lapped at his insides on the floorboard, on the way to the doctor. Jimmy, my father's shepherd, wouldn't eat after the evacuation. He wouldn't live with another master and pined away, skin and bone. With feelings more than pride, we call him our one-man dog. II. Mud Mud in the barracks— a muddy room, a chamber pot. Mud in the moats around each barracks group. Mud on the shoes trudging to the mess hall. Mud in the swamp where the men chopped wood. Mud on the guts under a loaded wagon— crushed in the mud by the wheel. III.  Desert Songs 1. all that we gathered Because there was little else to do, they led us to the artillery range for shells, all that we gathered, and let us dig among dunes for slugs, when they were through. Because there was little else to do, one of them chased a stray with his tail between his legs and shot him through the head. 2. shells A desert tortoise— something mute and hard— something to decorate a desert Japanese garden: gnarled wood, smooth artillery shells for a border. When a guard smashes one, the shell cracks open and the muscles ooze. 3. it is only natural The pheasant is an Oriental creature, so it is only natural that one should fly into camp and, famished by rations and cans, break out in secret, native dance over a fire, on a black coal stove. 4. song of the 442nd Caged creatures have curious moods. Some of them choose to be turned loose in a group, to take their chances in the open. 5. steers Because a dentist logically drives a butcher truck, I rode with my father to the slaughterhouse on an afternoon. Not hammers, not bullets, could make him close his eyes. 6. he teaches He jerks the eyes from birds, feet from lizards, and punishes ants with the gaze of a glass. And with his sly gaze, his child's face, he teaches what has its place, and must be passed on to others. IV. Song of Chicago When the threat lessened, when we became tame, my father and friends took a train to Chicago for factory work, for packaging bolts. One grew a mustache and called himself Carlos. And they all made a home with those of their own— rats, bedbugs, blacks.