NAM NHIEP

Semper Fi

By: Melissa de Haan Cummings - Jun 02, 2015

NAM NHIEP

The Marines are so angry:  they're
trained to be always angry.  They
think they're part of the Navy.
                                              -USN

do the loons
  dry their wings
  agaInst the sky
up in Laos
  climb
  against the sand flats
  and the currents
in that Southeast
  Asian river he saw
loons
  or cormorants
  with their
  wings
  spread against the
  Southeast Asian
  sky held there
  to dry
I dont know if they looked/if it was
  brown there or how
  they look black
  against the sky
  to the west
  of this Northeastern
  port city dry
  their wings there
  on the rocks
  in silhouette
  statuesque &
  flat against the
  death of each
  day he
  saw no loon
  in Laos
  he saw
  the heads of
  United States
  Marines
  posted in that river
  head
  by dying
  some were barely
  wounded
  we're on
  posts
  in that river

knocked down
  for three days
  he could not forget
  the cormorants
  he did not see
  loons
  held the brass knife
  to his bely
  that or
  combat fatigue



6Dec86  2h00
Melissa de Haan Cummings