A Greenness Taller Than Gods
When we stop,
a green snake starts again
through deep branches.
Spiders mend webs we marched into.
Monkeys jabber in flame trees,
dancing on the limbs to make
fire-colored petals fall. Torch birds
burn through the dark-green day.
The lieutenant puts on sunglasses
& points to an X circled
on his map. When will we learn
to move like trees move?
The point man raises his hand Wait!
We’ve just crossed paths with VC,
branches left quivering.
The lieutenant’s right hand says what to do.
We walk into a clearing that blinds.
We move like a platoon of silhouettes
balancing sledge hammers on our heads,
unaware our shadows have untied
from us, wandered off
& gotten lost.
Source of the text – Yusef Komunyakaa, Dien Cai Dau. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988, page 11.
TJB: Junglevision. This poem moves in sections: wildlife pausing to observe passing soldiers; a near-encounter between enemy combatants; then, evanescence.
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