halloween costume

Dear Rushka, who are you?

Who was your hero when you were a boy?

What color are the walls in your bedroom?

Were you one of the cool kids in kindergarten, or did your classmates make fun of you? What did they make fun of you for?

Did you live with both your parents? Do you remember the day they divorced, or the day one of them died?

What were you doing when you first felt your voice crack?

How many siblings did you have? Who was your best friend?

What was your Halloween costume in seventh grade?

Did you play football? Were you cut from the basketball team? Did you quit the cross country team your senior year?

Why?

What kind of music made you dance inside?

Did you ever look at a sunset and long to be part of it?

What did you eat for your last meal at home?

Did you go to college? What did you do on weekends? What did you major in? What fascinated you?

Why the Marines?

How old were you when you left for basic? What did you miss most about home?

What were you thinking the first time you stepped into your uniform? Is your name spelled right on the back pocket?

Did you ever think it would hang in someone’s garage for four dollars amid the hammers and knick knacks and doilies they cleaned out before they moved?

What happened on your first birthday as a Marine? Did you have a girlfriend? Did she write?

How did you make her smile the last time you saw her?

Where you afraid when you went overseas? Were you brave, too?

Did you find a way to laugh sometimes? Did you ever feel your heart rip out of your chest? Did you cry? Were you strong, too?

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up that morning?

Did you know what would happen?

How did they get you home?

Who folded your flag?

Are you wearing your blues?

Can you hear me?

Who are you, Rushka?