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The Double Roll
By: Thomas M. McDade
USS Mullinnix (DD-944)
USS Miller (DE/FF-1091)
I never sewed a piece
of neckerchief over
a scrap of web belt
and ended up
with what passed
for a knot
to everyone
but the Shore Patrol
who might pull
each bitter end
to demonstrate
how a sailor
might be
strangled
in a fight.
The double roll
was my choice.
After wetting
a neckerchief down
three shipmates pitched in.
We all held corners.
One rolled with me
diagonally
toward the middle.
When we met
it was tied off
with shot line
until I fashioned
a Turk’s Head
out of that
orange stuff.
That I was so proud of
I used to hope for
gusts of wind
to lift
my Dress Blue
flap up.
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