The New Man Poem by Bill Grace

When mired in I,
the West Point TAC at E.S.M.A.
did disciplinary push ups
with us for our screw up.
Slow learner that I am,
a half century later,
he at last is understood.


That point on the long gray line
was saying we were one;
the issue being neither screw up
nor hierarchy or even
the importance of previous conditioning.

He said it in the finest speech
with which God can bless us
the pain of the troubled torso
precedent that God has used before.


By the way an angel
tipped me off much later,
Lee and Grant were in heaven
and smiled together at that moment.