"Resurrection"
by Paloma
When the night exhales
loud and long,
(Starsky's fingers curl, an infant's fist,
under his pillow)
Crickets…..one voice….a metronome…
resurrecting……
Dienbienphu…..Kekong Delta…..Hanoi…..
familiar as Yonkers…..Broadway…..Brooklyn
Black chopper blades,
red smoking sky,
(or is that the sound of the crickets?)
Young men, now
old soldiers,
hunched with their backpacks,
marching through farmer's fields,
"Look right"…."Look left"….
"Do you see the yellow grass move?"
friend by day,
enemy by night
Do you see…..a young girl, in a tilted straw hat,
standing in the rice paddy?
Starsky covering his head, rockets exploding,
whose mother will lose a son today?
(He looks at the clock…2:38 am)
A village,
flames protecting against
entering….against leaving,
a carcass for the scanvengers
Vietcong…..Americans…..
"Whose side are you on, old man?"
"What is in your basket, old woman?"
Starsky asks,"Whose side?"
and the young girl,
in a tilted straw hat,
standing in the rice paddy, is silent
Wet, dressed
in dirt, debris,
these soldiers….brothers in the trench
Thou shalt not kill…
"Ma, it's
them against us!"
Whose mother will weep tonight?
(Starsky stands at the living room window…
these crickets are much too loud….)
Machine guns…….yelling….someone behind the tall grass…
her shadow………..his fire….
He sits on the couch,
his head down, low,
maybe tonite it will fall out of his ears,
maybe tonite it will drop out of his eyes,
a young girl,
with a tilted straw hat,
face down, in
the rice paddy….
and he will gather it all, and sweep it out the door