I have to admit I
was a little bit in awe
at the idea of meeting
Bobbie Keith - the Weather Girl -
although we hadn’t met yet,
I knew right away which one
she was,
she was the one in an energetic whirl.
I went to the ladies room
she was in the very next stall -
and when I told my sister
I was in the Ladies’ with Bobbie Keith,
my sister laughed,
and said: “Does she ‘go’
like the rest of us after all?”
Bobbie said one thing that struck me.
She said
you could print “Vietnam Veteran”
on your boobs
and some of them still wouldn’t
care - or make a fuss…
some don’t look at women as vets
they don’t look like that at us.
And I thought how sad -
She wasn’t a nurse - she was
the Weather Girl -
but she went to the Firebases -
she was there.....
99 degrees in Saigon, and 99% humidity -
and sometimes, the US map -
It’s 34 in Cleveland, Ohio,
and just beginning to snow.
Doing a little dance and saying
Weather-Wise and Other-Wise -
All the men listened to her then.
And it occurred to me that
they should be looking at her
and all the women,
with appreciation, once again.

©Christina Sharik
April 2001