Those Few

A memo to admissions deans:
If you recruit a quarterback
Who’s short of smarts as well as means,
Admit, please, vets, home from Iraq
And combat in Afghanistan
With brains, though reeling still from fright,
Yet bound to be all that they can,
Rejoicing when they sleep at night.

A memo to recruitment firms:
You talk up college graduates.
Perhaps though not such bookish worms
Are those among them, hardened vets
Who’ve had to learn to stay alive,
The toughest of curriculums;
Already fit with inner drive,
Which augurs well for best alums.

A memo to the rest of us:
Not many wear the uniform.
Why vex ourselves with such a fuss;
No draft, no duty as the norm?
The more we ought to value those
Who risked their lives so we keep ours.
A few for perks, you might suppose,
For most for love of stars and bars.

—Veterans Day 2012