> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.merionwest.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Here’s to the Cardinal Puff
- URL: https://www.merionwest.com/heres-to-the-cardinal-puff/
- Published: 2026-03-24T20:52:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-24T20:52:55.000Z
- Author: W. D. Ehrhart
- Tags: Arts, Poetry

> My wife and I put out seeds to feed  
> the little critters in our courtyard:  
> wrens and juncos, mourning doves,  
> squirrels, chipmunks, now and then  
> a rabbit. This morning a cardinal.  
>  
> That reminded me of Cardinal Puff,  
> a drinking game we used to play  
> on Okinawa back in 1968; I’ve no idea  
> why that came to mind. I haven’t  
> thought of it in years, decades even,  
> but there the memory was.  
>  
> This was after Vietnam, but I still  
> had time on my enlistment, so I  
> got sent to Okinawa. Back then,  
> Okinawa for a young enlisted man  
> was something like the armpit  
> of the universe: MPs everywhere,  
> little to do off base but pay too much  
> for drinks and hire prostitutes.  
>  
> So we just stayed on base, where  
> at the NCO Club, you could drink  
> Heineken beer for 35 cents a pop.  
> We went there every night, night  
> after night after evening chow  
> for three straight months: Fat Pat,  
> Smitty, the Big Swede, and me,  
> stayed each night ’til closing time,  
> and drank to the Cardinal Puff,  
> staggered back to the barracks,  
> and the next night did it again.  
>  
> It’s what you do, or at least  
> what we did after our little piece  
> of that war was over, and we’d  
> no idea what we’d done or what  
> we were supposed to do  
> with the rest of our lives.  
>  
> Fifty-eight years later, I’m feeding  
> seeds and nuts to little critters  
> on a cold and snowy winter day,  
> and here’s a cardinal. And I  
> can’t resist the urge to ask  
> out loud: “Is your name Puff?”

### W. D. Ehrhart's most recent books are a 2025 collection of poems, [*Smart Fish Don't Bite*](https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/ehrhart-w-d-smart-fish-don-t-bite/YD2QGAXXBUFHBNEM4K6HS6AF?cs=true&cst=custom&utm%5Fmedium=email&%5Fhsenc=p2ANqtz-%5FW-lL6cwwW8bsQANmJwm3MsSw-S42Z2xGh0k2oeotYQjMZaBNz9DqAOukdKP95CuNaM19QsZuXdCh2rJglFzD6U6sG4g&%5Fhsmi=380810861&utm%5Fcontent=380810861&utm%5Fsource=hs%5Femail) from Moonstone Arts, and *Getting Shot At: Essays on War, Conflict & Culture Clash,* forthcoming in 2026 from McFarland & Company, Inc. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales at Swansea and taught English and history at The Haverford School in Pennsylvania from 2001 to 2019.