Closing the Book on George Fell

Closing the Book on George Fell

My poem "Closing the Book on George Fell" was published on New Verse News today, May 23, 2020, the 50th anniversary of the death of my friend George Fell in Cambodia. George and I were very close friends. We double dated and hung around together with the same crowd. Unfortunately, George flunked out of college.

The title of the poem refers to a Saturday night when George was desperately studying, trying to stay in school. But we, his friends, let him down. While the other guys lifted him off his chair, I literally closed the book he was reading, thus one meaning for the title of the piece. We were too young and stupid to understand the consequences of our actions. Like the butterfly effect, I keep wondering if that moment changed George's life forever, even led to his death years later. Could he have hung on and passed his courses with a little more study? It is a nagging question that I keep on asking myself.

Here is the link to the poem:
https://newversenews.blogspot.com/202...

Here is the link to the Virtual Vietnam Wall photo of George:
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/15...