Hometown

A Bildungsroman, not in order, with parts missing/from the gunner's turret the countryside unspools like a scroll/you could drive through my hometown in 15 seconds/located at the foothills of the Catoctin Mountains/"If you're not cocky at nineteen, you have no balls. If you're not humble by twenty-five, you've got no brains."/He had a tattoo misattributed to Plato that said "Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War"/"I'm gonna chop your head off!" Billy says, waving his ax menacingly. "Unnh!" – he swings feebly at my belt – "Unnh!" - realizing his disadvantage – "Can you lower your head?" "So you can chop it off?" "Yes." I bend down, "Here you go." (chopping my head off with his foam ax) "Thank you."/time is never where you left it