The Call Never Comes by Sharon Waller Knutson

He is working the night
shift at the Montana Standard
when his new bride
shows up with a draft
notice and a pepperoni pizza
they share with a reporter
who says, You’re going
to Vietnam, Buddy and he
says, You’re next. For weeks
the newsroom night shift
takes bets on when he will
be shipped off to boot camp.
His editor remains calm
and quiet. He waits and waits
and when the call doesn’t come,
he moves to Minnesota
for another sports editor job.
It isn’t until he sees the Vietnam
Vets waving flags in the parade
in Rochester years later
that he realizes that if the call
had come, he too could be in
a wheelchair.



Sharon Waller Knutson is a retired journalist who lives in a wildlife habitat in Arizona. She has published several poetry books including My Grandmother Smokes Chesterfields by Flutter Press and What the Clairvoyant Doesn’t Say and Trials & Tribulations of Sports Bob which are forthcoming from Kelsay Books. Her work has also appeared most recently in Spillwords, Trouvaille Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Gleam: Journal of the Cadralor, Verse-Virtual, Your Daily Poem, and The Song Is…