Monday, July 14, 2014

Recapitulations of War!


((Images of an Ideal) (war verses of Vietnam—1971)

    
Faces in War I

—endless lizards sunken in the sands
Traverses across our paths
And the hot sky, appears as from a swell
of the sun, —
A will stronger than man or animal
There is a murmuring of men who cannot
rest or sleep
Faces pale and blank;
Sad faces (they don’t want to be here).
Dead are their lips, yet this evening with
drink they will laugh and sing!
Eyes connecting with eyes, burnt of life
like rats and crows
And tonight I’m on guard duty,
—searching for weary eyes like those.

No: 4463 (7-11-2014)


God’s Face in War II

—funny, but I never got angry at the Vietcong
trying to kill me, during the war in Vietnam
Not even in my dreams
Not even shook with terror or hate, for the VC
Not even a lip trembling…
Not even a smear falling…
Somehow I shoved aside this cloud
Where blood comes from all sides!
Why?
Perhaps because both sides have broken
God’s golden rule:
To love one another as you’d love Him!

No: 4462(7-11-2014)





Rocket Fire   III
(‘It will pass’)

—When under rocket attack,
you know that it will pass:
The fury, the torment,
The intermediate stillness,
The interlude between now
and then… will pass!
The promise of another rocket
across the still moon, and
the tumult of sounds it carries
with its wrath—
You know that it will pass…
It is just a thing, a thing without
a brain, comatose, yet vain.

No: 4461(7-11-2014)


The Rocket    VI

—pulsing in the air, then a whistling,
split and seared, then a thunderous crash!
Then an innumerable shrapnel flash…
Suddenly a shell overhead, closes in
Then the purr of the rocket changes to a
beastly wail, it has missed its kill, but
it has its target zeroed in, it will try again!
There is the silence: my soul, heart mind,
goes still…
The whole area is cloaked in stillness—
No, not quite fear, just knowing the
upcoming rocket, carries domination,
that it is a creature of its on longings!


No: 4460(7-11-2014