New Age UncagedBy Frank Light
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New Age Uncaged
Nha Trang, 1968. Documents, intercepts, interrogations, informants, and agents could have given us a heads-up – had we not imagined we were them.
Buddha beckons
Charlie reckons
Old man’s blind
Dumb, numb, deaf to the times
Defrocked, destocked
In hock, counterclock
Blocked, locked, propped in the backseat
Cast into concrete
Smooth as stone
Bright as bone
Going gone
Childhood songs
Right the wrongs
Tell the tale
Cell by cell
Incubated
Mutated
Pullulating
Pulsating
Propagating
Populating
Infiltrating
Insinuating
Indoctrinating
Agitating
Aching heads
Breaking threads
Red spreads
Dread
Tumors and cysts
Tracks and trysts
Rumors of lists
Absence unmissed
License to resist
Rise with the mists and the tide
Ride with the wind and glide
On verbal convection
Fervent conviction
Unerring direction
Convex inflection
Sham elections
Not interested
Already divested
Outposts invested
Districts contested
Logistics tested
Contacts arrested
Context suggested
Comments requested
Less said the better
Follow the letter
In it together
No matter the weather
The quitters, the fretters
The starts and stops
The cart the ox
The cash the crops
The watch tocks
Keys, locks
Docks, ducks
Trains, trucks
Flow, flux
Rickshaws, cyclos, motorbikes
Canals, back channels, and dikes
Rivers west to east
Embargoes released
Prepare the feast
Ensnare the beast
Beware pretenders
Return to sender
Conspicuous contenders
Token defenders
Repeat offenders
Vendors, lenders
Solicitous mentors
Religious dissenters
Fringes to center
The mad monkey enters
What was lost will be won
The done undone
The country as one
By one
Word of mouth
Moves north to south
Mountain to sea
Paddy to city
People’s committees
Comrades and cadres
Give it up gladly
All for the Party
The Party for all
Clarion call
For martyrs and heroes
Thousand arrows
Plows and harrows
Owls and sparrows
Now’s the hour
Power’s ours for the taking
Generations in the making
On the brink
Pry the chink
Lose the link
Break the chain
Embrace the pain
No need to explain
Tactical mendacity
Unwavering tenacity
Always audacity
Increasing capacity
Operational opacity
Not yet achieved
But message received
In the nets we weave
Deaths we grieve
Homes we leave
As temporary as new year’s eve
As necessary as the air we breathe
As evolutionary leads to revolutionary deeds
Playing to strengths
Going to great lengths
To please, to tease
Appear to appease
Call for peace
A ceasefire at least
A truce for dupes
With judicious use
Of classic ruses, flimsy excuses
Averted eyes, plaintive cries
Lullabies, butterflies
Little white lies and alibis
Spies in the guise of witting stooges
Subterfuges
Gimmicks, doozies
Pimps and floozies
Onesies, twosies
Short and long fuses
Fireworks firecrackers
Quick reacters, residual attackers
Bad actors before and after
Distant distracters
Beneficent backers
Irrational front
Political stunts
Both blunt and coy
Be it background noise
Or jukes or ploys
Flukes, toys
Convoluted convoys
Decorative decoys
Eloquent envoys
Showing how to kowtow to
An age-old sage
Slow to leave the stage
Damn with faint praise
Merely a phase
None of it stays
Uncle Ho says
Engage the factions
Convey reactions
Allay dissatisfactions
Dazzle the frazzled
Hassle the hustlers
Muzzle the mumblers
Muffle the grumblers
Jugglers bunglers
Puppet bundlers
Buffoon bumblers
Staggering stumblers
Rolling Thunderers
Plunderers blunderers
Thorns thistles
Whistles missiles
Sudden flashes
Marauder crashes
Haul the ashes
Open the caches
Swap out the stashes
Unmask the masses
Smash the fascists
Oust the capitalists
Thieving upper classes
Onward, nationalists
You’re the catalysts
Crystallize galvanize energize
Demonize harmonize
Synchronize finalize
Organize mobilize
Workers unite
Arise
Exercise your rights
Starting tonight
The general offensive
Intensive, extensive,
Commences
So concentrate, focus
Float like the lotus, unnoticed
Slip like the fog
Eel in a bog
Ant off a log
Tick on a dog
A slog up to and down from the Highlands
Self-reliance
In compliance
With socialist science
Mute defiance
To toothless tyrants
Those helpless giants
Disavow violence
Howl in silence
Prowl
Across the divide
The other side
Has nowhere to hide
The decay and dismay
Complete disarray on full display
The schisms the chasms
Has-beens’ spasms
Passing passions
Ersatz enthusiasms
Foreign fashions
Hired assassins
Murderous massacres
Teargas cannisters
Opium traffickers
Casino gangsters
Racketeers and financiers with colonial masters
Privateers, sloganeers, sinecures, manicures
Mandarin aunts who summer in France
Meandering rants, charlatan chants, harlequin cants
Pleas for patience, fees for all occasions
Visa arrangers, money-changers
Rising prices, crisis after crisis
Oh, the bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie
Corrupt ministries, monks into effigies
Laborers to refugees
The height of hypocrisy
Such a legacy
Ladies bawling
Lackies lolling
Elites dissolving
Priests absolving
Negotiators stalling
Parasites crawling
Gulping gasping
Gripping grasping
Clutching clasping
Clawing hands
Desperate demands
Downward trends
Soaring debt
Losing bets
Crippled vets
Fixed address
Anybody’s guess
Associated press
Anonymous threats
Unmanned desks
Parisian baguettes
American cigarettes
Drinks at the Rex
Massage-parlor sex
Everything to excess
Headed for the exits
Too late
Out of shape
No escape
Traitors rolled
Collaborators culled
Truth told
Justice doled
The world’s a scold
Our position holds
Bubble up
Trickle down
Double up
Troubled town
Light the incense
One last instance
Let it smolder
Over your shoulder
One year older
Bolder
Colder
Muscles twitch
Scratch the itch
Into the ditch
Over the wall
House call
Window peek
Seek, sneak
Hinges squeak
Floorboards creak
Songbirds cheep
Tigers leap
The meek the weak
Too scared to speak
Will thank you later
Liberator
Reunificator
Punji stakes
Three-step snakes
Poisoned lakes
Whatever it takes
We all make mistakes
Like criminals and lawmen
We have that in common
Collectively straw men
Circumstantially bonded
Separately commanded
Banded, branded
Recently landed
And on our own
Without a phone
In the dark
Off the mark
Choices stark
With Pentagon
Fixed on
Khe Sanh
Saigon
Bygone icons
Dien Bien Phu
Madame Nhu, her barbecue
Ngo Dinh Diem, dead by coup
Nguyen Van Thieu as if on cue
Déjà vu
Under review
Muddle through
Damned if you do demilitarized zones
And porous borders
Fragmented orders
Straight from headquarters
Dispatched, crosshatched, mismatched
Headgear and shoulder patches, clandestine clashes, heat rashes
Small beer, stalled careers, intrigues, jungle fatigues, combat fatigue
Zigzag, jet lag, draped flags, taped dog tags
Body bags and counts
In massive amounts
Search and destroy
To deter Hanoi
Lurch into Laos
Looking for payoffs
Patterns in chaos
Pnomh Penh
Wrong end
Of the trail
Ancillary, capillary, adjusted to scale
Steadfast effort
Refreshed fretwork
Best guess network
A maze in the haze
Of untamed spaces
Unrun races
Savage graces, covered faces
Chilly nights coolie days
Silly fights corraling strays
Tricks and traps
Credibility gaps
General Giap
Off the map
While tunnels
funnel
human runnels
underground
Out of sight, out of sound
Out of line, out of sync
Out of instinct, time to rethink
Rejigger, reconfigure
From every perspective
Reflective retrospectives
Effective correctives
Selective objectives
Protective collectives
Proactive directives
Advise, resupply
Admonish, comply
Attach and apply
Think-tank methodologies
Technology without apologies
Military eschatology
The anti-astrology
Of algebraic algorithms
Mixed-market materialism
Acronymal hymnals
Constitutional dilemmas
And institutional whims are
Whipped into exigencies
Indifferent to casualties
In deference to contingencies
Counterinsurgency
Now a growth industry
New sense of urgency
Banking hopes
On starlight scopes
Camouflage, Cabot Lodge, and espionage
Sabotaging the cabotage
Agitprop, caps for cops, pallet drops
Sources in shops, schools of hard knocks
Patrons, partners, tree-top choppers
Couriers and carriers, sky-high fliers
Sellers, buyers, fields of fire
Concertina wire in horizontal spires
Bomblets, leaflets, bombastic pamphlets
Amulets, Ann-Margret and assorted starlets,
Shields, swords, punishment and rewards
Pacification and CORDS
The Geneva Accords
Furloughs, Dak To, ratios on Rostow’s say-so
Westmoreland and McNamara
The whole panorama
Abracadabra a propaganda extravaganza
Mamasans and papasans in black pajamas
Marvin the Arvin tested for stamina
Telltale signs
Between the lines
Could be by design
Small arms and mines
And mine detectors
Plainclothes inspectors
Sensors, defectors
Censors, mentors
Landlords, renters
Rallies, tallies, targeted valleys
Agent Orange
Where foresters forage
And guerrillas pillage
Village to village
Hamlet to haystack
With promises to pay back
Scorning those who stay back
In hidey holes behind the buffalos
And of course us with our memos demos dominoes
Ambiguous vows
Drawn-out vowels
Grunts and growls
Mildewed towels
Irritated bowels
Rome plows
Visored brows
Squints and stares
Guys in chairs
Splitting hairs
Blissfully unawares
Of weed in the reeds
Asses in the grasses
Loonies in the boonies
Marines in their teens
Troopers toting bloopers
Green Berets every which way
Ricocheting across the passageways
Bracing for monsoons, typhoons, profiteering tycoons
Platoons re-repairing pontoon bridges
Squads on watch from rocky ridges
Glitches, stenches, monkey wrenches
Terms and trenches
Berms and fences
Grilles and grates
Towers, gates
Perforated plates
Pylons, pythons, indigenous payrolls, artesenal arsenals
Hand signals, foot patrols
Remote controls, opinion polls
Risk adverse
Tense and terse
Don’t make it worse
Power of the purse
When accidents happen
Ask the captain
For solatium
Small consolation
Call it a donation
De-escalation
Trends and correlations
Extraneous extrapolations
Become predictive
Almost addictive
When you factor in tractors
Hectares and vectors
Societal sectors
Ballistics, mystics
Updated statistics
Noted characteristics
Procedural mechanisms
For optimistic pessimism
And vice-versa
Bureaucratic inertia
Putative realists
Straight off the B list
Projecting confidence
Invoking providence
Maneuvering for prominence
While aerial surveillance
Corroborates the evidence
All the elements
Of aggregate intelligence
And not a clue
How is it, sir
Howitzers rumble
While we slumber
Aiming at nothing
Scrapping, scuffing
Feinting, bluffing
Atonal accent
On harassment
Intermittent interdiction
Attenuated attrition
Undivided attention
Bystanders gawk
As snipers stalk
A random walk
Shoulders hunching
Soldiers bunching
Numbers crunching
Add it, audit
You touch it, you bought it
Mission creep
Slippery steep
In it for keeps
With raids and sweeps
And rogue regimes
Roaming restless dreams
The less it seems
Sips and seaps
Lips and leaks
Tics and tweaks
Coos and peeps
Did something beep?
Who was it parked the jeep?
No sir yes sir
What’s the answer
Begs the question
What’s the lesson
Whose aggression
True confession
Suppressed progression
Compressed repression
Contrived expression
De liber oppression
Our obsessions
Cross lines of succession
Cosine regression
At off-site sessions
Per persnickety perfectionists
And antipodal antagonists
Overloaded with loyalists
Neutered neutralists
Allies at the PX
Peasants in native dress
Potentates in residence
Posturing as penitents
Professing innocence
Listening for resonance
As long-range reconnaissance
Disappears into new frontiers
Muck, mud, leeches, overreaches, and moans
Veers into crud, thuds, duds, Doors, and Stones
Karma postponed
Trade-off understood
Would that you could
Bad with the good
Baby with bath
Do the math
Subtract divide
Take it in stride
Steal inside the marsh and eddies
Step around the Bouncing Betties
Steady, Eddie
Going hot
Ready or not
Anticipate
Save the date
We can’t
wait –
Break break
quick quake quaver quiver
s-sh-sch-shimmy shiver
smack
slap
crack!
snap back backtrack blowback rollback oh crap
wake up
scrunch up
sit up jump up
what the
shut the
but the
black to white
kill the light
fleeting seconds
lasting impressions
detonations deafen
grab your weapons
sirens wailing
sergeants yelling
incoming shelling
heart a-pounding
blood a-rushing
fussing, cussing
bare feet scuffling
fatigues rustling
boots, no socks
dude in flipflops
misfit steel pot
practically hip-hops
crossing sand
as flares swing
over no-man’s land
on parachute wings
they chirp they sing
above the swamp
mortars thump
artillery whomps
machine guns belting
barrels near melting
preposterous phosphorus
incandescent effervescence
evanescent luminescence
inferred inferno
tempestuous tempo
ear-ringing crescendo
louder by the minute
gunpowder, propellant, and insect repellant
prick the nostrils
hark the hostiles
rat a tat
crisp clap crackle
battle rattle
stereo static
semi-automatic
no antics, no panic
more manic than frantic
if you see ‘em have at it
nothing to see
except scenery
soupy greenery
the usual humidity
paths and paddies from memory
malarial estuaries
febrile dysenteries
actuarial obituaries
matériel sanctuaries
mercurial mercenaries
expeditionary adversaries
defaulting to others
to fill in the colors
imagine – no, don’t
unless you know what you want
best to buckle up
knuckle down
spelunker in the bunker
hunker in the clunker
it’s a stumper
mother humper
bump in the road
lump in the node
momentum slowed
pendulum pushed
from out of the bush
in God we trust
hush, it’s been discussed
adjust
no rush
breathe, seethe, air pet peeves if you must
flex, stretch, etch and kvetch
fiddle diddle doodle dawdle
ho hum twiddle your thumbs
pretend your helmet’s a drum
chew gum
dip snus
hang loose
tap a beat
stomp your feet
until it hurts
whatever works
clerks and jerks
a little too perky
outlook murky
it began, like so much, with a surprise
where the airfield lies
just out of reach
between town and base, road and beach
a momentary lapse
midst the shanties and shacks
Charlie jumped the gun
sentries overcome
perimeter breeched
outside in, inside out
seeds of doubt
speed of thought
brought to a halt
ought to’ve been caught
situation fraught
nappers sappers
satchels shrapnel
sandbags sumps
ammo dumps
ruptured pumps
punctured rumps
flickering shadows shuddering shades
rocket-propelled and hand grenades
planes in flames
hangars scorched
trucks torched
fuel burning
tables turning
soundtrack staccato and strobic
incommunicado and heroic
pilots scrambling
through the gunplay
propellers churning
down the runway
up and away, out of the fray
over the strand, above the bay
aviators with attitude
attaining altitude limited latitude
orders of magnitude
ratcheting orbits
formerly dormant ornery hornets
taunting torments, Damoclean ornaments
haunting performance, significance enormous
one peels, wheels
falls like a nut from a coconut tree, gravity
to grave
so brave
cut short
abort! abort!
pulls up, a helium balloon
we have Buddha instead of the moon
silhouette
pirouettes
Skyraider descends like a hand stroking a pet
cannon the pop-pop of a balloon against bicycle spokes
spits spurts spatters
clatters clutters
engine stutters
throttles, strains
regains thrust, skeeballs up
spirals down
revisits resounds
bursts
roars
more, more
rains it pours
whirl curl snarls unfurls like at a German locomotive
on "Twentieth Century,” a TV documentary
swoops through the years
loops to the ears
rekindles old fears
aren’t we all volunteers
sons of guns of pioneers
indexed to our gazetteers
inadvertent souvenirs
whoom kaboom
tattoo of doom
iron broom
scours the room
and the glands vibrate like tuning forks
and the teacher tells about Mussolini's son-in-law saying
it was beautiful like a flower blooming
it’s not history it’s happening
maddening, addling
straddling layers on layers
baffling players and prayers
prospective purveyors
underminers overstayers
unofficially unconventional
incrementally multidimensional
centrifugally centripetal
encircling the citadel
certainly know it well
country cleft
who’s left wins it
spins it
downtown out of bounds
outgunned, out of rounds
checkpoints checkmated
intimidated if not eliminated
rough toughs had enough
Phantoms off
what the f four
casting for
a living-room war
Puff fills the void
redoubts destroyed
forces deployed
costs ignored
losses endured
bosses assured
public implored
critics deplored
cut the cord
the hidden unbidden
now does once didn’t
pause
air like gauze
musty, dusty, smells of straw
` that awe that gnaws
hems and haws
oohs and aahs
for all their flaws
dudes had balls
died for the cause
true and false
bent to the yoke
went for broke
in one fell stroke
broken
and unspoken for
not our cohort
anymore
thunderstruck
so abrupt
ponder what
came unstuck
just our luck
nothing to duck
or shoot
or scooch or scoot
or even salute
loosen the boots
wiggle the toes hold the nose
GI joes flicking Zippos
passing smokes
rehashing stale jokes
cramped and chafed
rifles on safe
pins in place
chicken-wire interface
while Skyraiders strafe
and tracers lace
filigreed asymmetry
an epiphany debased
empathy displaced
disbelief distended
belief untended
no harm unintended
carry on
stifle a yawn
so label us pawns
implicit, complicit
illicit, insipid
it’s only a visit
soon to be gone
one day we’ll miss it
and we won’t be alone
the clarity, the stakes
posterity awaits
how the heart aches
the night breaks in pieces
light fills the creases
dawn
the commotion concealed
what sunup reveals –
kicked-out, ripped-up, stripped-down urban jungle
utilities jumbled
vehicles crumpled
street signs mangled
banners tangled
columns angled
villas in shambles
guerrillas pummeled
compounds crumbled
architectural mumbo-jumbo
art deco geckos
stuck on stucco
splintered blistered
wrecked racked
blackened ruined
fractured strewn
hacked and hewn
dadaist palms
unexpressed qualms
queasy calm in the gut
somewhere short of throwing up
images tarnished, car parts and carnage
rats rummaging through the garbage
smoke plumes
probes resume
who to whom
and whom to who
high on fumes
scent of metal more than mental
pungent piquant all too frequent
vaguely medicinal up close and visceral
field-force offices and hospital
provincial capital
one vulcanized sandal
and a once-pink parasol
lie aside the sidewalk
Coca-Cola logo
seagull on a flagpole
cathedral on a low knoll
no, no bells toll
we’re in a lull
what’s the latest?
do they hate us?
did they bait us?
train station on hiatus
Buddha on pedestal
unblinking, unthinking, unthinkable
swastikas on slopes
dragons on ropes
down to the pagoda
its posse comitatus
over quota
no-go the status quo
uh-oh, tiptoes
footfalls
pitfalls
pratfalls
catcalls
bats mauled
walls spalled
thatch charred
glass shards brickbats
tic tac bric-a-brac
this and that
tit for tat
tet
hair wet as worms
maggots squirm
into a Rorschach inkblot
stinkpot pre-rot
if seen
you’re shot
if shot
you’re not
thus low and flat
is where it’s at
save Buddha on the hill
still as in ever
as in water
as in born
unadorned, shorn
torn
borne
reborn
past in surfeit
present perfect
future splendid
open-ended
and on the run
up to a point
which is the point
you go beyond
ain’t over yet
too soon for regrets
get out the gazette
revise the goals
devise a story
plug the holes
strut the glory
allegory salves the stings
though half the things
worth mentioning
aren’t functioning
and underlings are wondering
is anybody governing
and who the hell is covering
when the hueys aren’t hovering
government is only human and machines
money and schemes
lone wolves, disparate teams
raised expectations, revamped regulations, rules
deputized fools, management tools
assumed authorities
bemused majorities
abused minorities
shifting priorities
ironies
With the American and South Vietnamese infantry committed to Saigon and those places where the North Vietnamese committed theirs, the battle for Nha Trang became one of small, often improvised, units. It played out slowly, block by block. Sensing need as well as opportunity, accounting specialist “Win” Winogrond of Watertown, Wisconsin, stowed away in the medics’ three-quarter-ton truck headed for town and there joined American-led irregulars moving on a machine-gun position believed to be in a bungalow at the end of a street. A Vietnamese man with a rifle stepped out from rubble to the side of the bungalow. Friend or foe? He shot Win in the midsection. An American lieutenant ran over, provided cover, checked the wound, radioed for a medevac. On hands and knees, blood dripping onto his carbine and the dirt around it, Win couldn’t stop laughing in the realization his life would never be the same; consciousness had made him a survivor. The truck he came in on rushed him to the hospital. After that, military police inspected every vehicle that left the base. You needed a reason.
Eyes blink mechanically
And shut with a click
Project onto a screen
snow fluttering after dinner
each flake part of something bigger, dimmer
reminders to remember
remove finger from trigger
round from chamber
red to amber
sitrep typed
optics hyped
glasses wiped
arms stacked
midnight snack
hamburgers in the officers' mess
under a street lamp reading step-by-step directions for the
assembly and utilization of the light anti-tank weapon
making friends
and enemies
amends
means to ends
matriculation speaker saying
"Introduce yourself to the persons on your left and right.
One of you three won't be here for graduation."
The third consecutive sleepless night
The lids lift on resolution's ropes and habit's pulleys
Buddha alight
in line of sight
positioned right to report
from the seaside resort
the perfect retort
to skewed perceptions
misconceptions
self-deception sporadic reception
insurrection and uprisings
sound enticing
from over the horizon
where activist strategists
envision the pageantry
diplomatic pleasantries
fodder for fantasies
common man their currency
forget the families
and the economy
take the embassy
and Hue overrun
one nation stunned
another in tatters
civilians scattered
Charlie battered
the spell is shattered
Nha Trang lost in the clatter
let talking heads natter
it’s Walter Cronkite that matters
and instigators, investigators, commentators, advocators
provocateurs, raconteurs, up-and-coming cinematic auteurs
middle-age yogis, older fogeys bagging groceries, inauspicious Hare Krishnas, assembled Quakers, movers and shakers, policy makers
senators, janitors, mid-level managers
anglers, wranglers, stars-and-spanglers
meddlers, levelers, prescription peddlers
monitors, chroniclers, popular barometers
panelists, fatalists, amateur analysts
professional pugilists, prognosticating futurists
teachers, preachers, putative impeachers, motivational speakers
peaceniks, beatniks, draft resisters, half sisters
younger brothers, gold star mothers, founding fathers
next of kin, best of friends, he or she without sin
mustered ancestors, flustered fact checkers, wild guessers, thesis testers
profound professors, principled protesters, conscientious objectors
4-F for the duration, the occupationally or educationally deferred
politically conferred, Guard and Reserves
silent majority ready to party
hard hats in hand strike up the band
hawks and doves
who do you love
none of the above
each to his station
prone to exaggeration
righteous indignation
retaliation recrimination
disintegration of the nation
international dissemination
external damnation
imperial divination
communist penetration
all indications
too much information
it’s causation frustration
vocation location
where to begin how to end
when it’s Buddha, Buddha again
The bullet grazed Winogrond’s liver on the way in and his spine on the way out. Million-dollar wound, he cracked before his flight to Japan. Despite other options this draftee, with a BA in philosophy from Madison and an MBA from Stanford, will insist on returning.
near-sighted misguided
not easily righted
far-sighted correctible
if detectable early
before the hurly-burly
finds the middle surrounded, confounded
blindsided, derided, incited, invited
by barkers at the carnival
pandering to the faithful
hankering for the fanciful
suckers at the tidal pool
dumpsters at the landfill
hammer and the anvil
amateurs by the basketful
missionary and the cannibals
moral is big eats little
fast takes slow
boy gets girl
smart must know
The sheep was last year, out to pasture
Buddha witness
Inauspicious monkey business
Victor Charlie on an isthmus
Listless, witless, swims with fishes
Strung along and stranded
All but abandoned
Out of the loop
No chance to regroup
Groups being divisible
Down to the individual
With essence inalienable
Their presence replaceable
Each interchangeable
In one sense not another
Their ranks expand
Please understand
They’re neither numbers nor names
They’re men,
Women, and children.
Or they were.
A sea breeze blows
As boys known
Back home
Doze off
Too deep
To hear the rooster crow
Not until some 45 years later will VA doctors have to redo the mesh in Winogrond’s abdomen. In the meantime he’ll marry, help raise five kids, three of them adopted, divorce, remarry, become a widower, spend most of his life abroad, and settle, at last, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, birthplace of the blues.
Precision and rhythm lift us from the isms
Waft us through a prism
Where refraction redacts visions
Into exercises in diction
The diction a fiction
A proxy at best
Standardized test
The depiction an intervention
Invention a convention
Comprehension on the cheap
Redemption a leap of faith
Should you leave it to fate
Or the stars align
Seek and ye shall find
Nearly everything rhymes
What was one of a kind
Is all in the mind
The spirit entwines
The body unwinds
Until it’s over
It’s almost over
Released by the infinite, leashed to the finite,
Adrift in the twilight
Sleep a stray
Lives day to day
Give it something to chew on
To go on
A bone of contention
Mother of invention
Best of intentions
Ebb and flow
How it vexes
The man from Texas
Next to go
Brand new nexus
Death and taxes
Wounds and welts
Yips and yelps
Coonskin pelts
Nothing helps
Lose the news
You lose
Buddha rolls
In memory of H.R. Winogrond
1942-2014
Nha Trang, 1968. Documents, intercepts, interrogations, informants, and agents could have given us a heads-up – had we not imagined we were them.
Buddha beckons
Charlie reckons
Old man’s blind
Dumb, numb, deaf to the times
Defrocked, destocked
In hock, counterclock
Blocked, locked, propped in the backseat
Cast into concrete
Smooth as stone
Bright as bone
Going gone
Childhood songs
Right the wrongs
Tell the tale
Cell by cell
Incubated
Mutated
Pullulating
Pulsating
Propagating
Populating
Infiltrating
Insinuating
Indoctrinating
Agitating
Aching heads
Breaking threads
Red spreads
Dread
Tumors and cysts
Tracks and trysts
Rumors of lists
Absence unmissed
License to resist
Rise with the mists and the tide
Ride with the wind and glide
On verbal convection
Fervent conviction
Unerring direction
Convex inflection
Sham elections
Not interested
Already divested
Outposts invested
Districts contested
Logistics tested
Contacts arrested
Context suggested
Comments requested
Less said the better
Follow the letter
In it together
No matter the weather
The quitters, the fretters
The starts and stops
The cart the ox
The cash the crops
The watch tocks
Keys, locks
Docks, ducks
Trains, trucks
Flow, flux
Rickshaws, cyclos, motorbikes
Canals, back channels, and dikes
Rivers west to east
Embargoes released
Prepare the feast
Ensnare the beast
Beware pretenders
Return to sender
Conspicuous contenders
Token defenders
Repeat offenders
Vendors, lenders
Solicitous mentors
Religious dissenters
Fringes to center
The mad monkey enters
What was lost will be won
The done undone
The country as one
By one
Word of mouth
Moves north to south
Mountain to sea
Paddy to city
People’s committees
Comrades and cadres
Give it up gladly
All for the Party
The Party for all
Clarion call
For martyrs and heroes
Thousand arrows
Plows and harrows
Owls and sparrows
Now’s the hour
Power’s ours for the taking
Generations in the making
On the brink
Pry the chink
Lose the link
Break the chain
Embrace the pain
No need to explain
Tactical mendacity
Unwavering tenacity
Always audacity
Increasing capacity
Operational opacity
Not yet achieved
But message received
In the nets we weave
Deaths we grieve
Homes we leave
As temporary as new year’s eve
As necessary as the air we breathe
As evolutionary leads to revolutionary deeds
Playing to strengths
Going to great lengths
To please, to tease
Appear to appease
Call for peace
A ceasefire at least
A truce for dupes
With judicious use
Of classic ruses, flimsy excuses
Averted eyes, plaintive cries
Lullabies, butterflies
Little white lies and alibis
Spies in the guise of witting stooges
Subterfuges
Gimmicks, doozies
Pimps and floozies
Onesies, twosies
Short and long fuses
Fireworks firecrackers
Quick reacters, residual attackers
Bad actors before and after
Distant distracters
Beneficent backers
Irrational front
Political stunts
Both blunt and coy
Be it background noise
Or jukes or ploys
Flukes, toys
Convoluted convoys
Decorative decoys
Eloquent envoys
Showing how to kowtow to
An age-old sage
Slow to leave the stage
Damn with faint praise
Merely a phase
None of it stays
Uncle Ho says
Engage the factions
Convey reactions
Allay dissatisfactions
Dazzle the frazzled
Hassle the hustlers
Muzzle the mumblers
Muffle the grumblers
Jugglers bunglers
Puppet bundlers
Buffoon bumblers
Staggering stumblers
Rolling Thunderers
Plunderers blunderers
Thorns thistles
Whistles missiles
Sudden flashes
Marauder crashes
Haul the ashes
Open the caches
Swap out the stashes
Unmask the masses
Smash the fascists
Oust the capitalists
Thieving upper classes
Onward, nationalists
You’re the catalysts
Crystallize galvanize energize
Demonize harmonize
Synchronize finalize
Organize mobilize
Workers unite
Arise
Exercise your rights
Starting tonight
The general offensive
Intensive, extensive,
Commences
So concentrate, focus
Float like the lotus, unnoticed
Slip like the fog
Eel in a bog
Ant off a log
Tick on a dog
A slog up to and down from the Highlands
Self-reliance
In compliance
With socialist science
Mute defiance
To toothless tyrants
Those helpless giants
Disavow violence
Howl in silence
Prowl
Across the divide
The other side
Has nowhere to hide
The decay and dismay
Complete disarray on full display
The schisms the chasms
Has-beens’ spasms
Passing passions
Ersatz enthusiasms
Foreign fashions
Hired assassins
Murderous massacres
Teargas cannisters
Opium traffickers
Casino gangsters
Racketeers and financiers with colonial masters
Privateers, sloganeers, sinecures, manicures
Mandarin aunts who summer in France
Meandering rants, charlatan chants, harlequin cants
Pleas for patience, fees for all occasions
Visa arrangers, money-changers
Rising prices, crisis after crisis
Oh, the bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie
Corrupt ministries, monks into effigies
Laborers to refugees
The height of hypocrisy
Such a legacy
Ladies bawling
Lackies lolling
Elites dissolving
Priests absolving
Negotiators stalling
Parasites crawling
Gulping gasping
Gripping grasping
Clutching clasping
Clawing hands
Desperate demands
Downward trends
Soaring debt
Losing bets
Crippled vets
Fixed address
Anybody’s guess
Associated press
Anonymous threats
Unmanned desks
Parisian baguettes
American cigarettes
Drinks at the Rex
Massage-parlor sex
Everything to excess
Headed for the exits
Too late
Out of shape
No escape
Traitors rolled
Collaborators culled
Truth told
Justice doled
The world’s a scold
Our position holds
Bubble up
Trickle down
Double up
Troubled town
Light the incense
One last instance
Let it smolder
Over your shoulder
One year older
Bolder
Colder
Muscles twitch
Scratch the itch
Into the ditch
Over the wall
House call
Window peek
Seek, sneak
Hinges squeak
Floorboards creak
Songbirds cheep
Tigers leap
The meek the weak
Too scared to speak
Will thank you later
Liberator
Reunificator
Punji stakes
Three-step snakes
Poisoned lakes
Whatever it takes
We all make mistakes
Like criminals and lawmen
We have that in common
Collectively straw men
Circumstantially bonded
Separately commanded
Banded, branded
Recently landed
And on our own
Without a phone
In the dark
Off the mark
Choices stark
With Pentagon
Fixed on
Khe Sanh
Saigon
Bygone icons
Dien Bien Phu
Madame Nhu, her barbecue
Ngo Dinh Diem, dead by coup
Nguyen Van Thieu as if on cue
Déjà vu
Under review
Muddle through
Damned if you do demilitarized zones
And porous borders
Fragmented orders
Straight from headquarters
Dispatched, crosshatched, mismatched
Headgear and shoulder patches, clandestine clashes, heat rashes
Small beer, stalled careers, intrigues, jungle fatigues, combat fatigue
Zigzag, jet lag, draped flags, taped dog tags
Body bags and counts
In massive amounts
Search and destroy
To deter Hanoi
Lurch into Laos
Looking for payoffs
Patterns in chaos
Pnomh Penh
Wrong end
Of the trail
Ancillary, capillary, adjusted to scale
Steadfast effort
Refreshed fretwork
Best guess network
A maze in the haze
Of untamed spaces
Unrun races
Savage graces, covered faces
Chilly nights coolie days
Silly fights corraling strays
Tricks and traps
Credibility gaps
General Giap
Off the map
While tunnels
funnel
human runnels
underground
Out of sight, out of sound
Out of line, out of sync
Out of instinct, time to rethink
Rejigger, reconfigure
From every perspective
Reflective retrospectives
Effective correctives
Selective objectives
Protective collectives
Proactive directives
Advise, resupply
Admonish, comply
Attach and apply
Think-tank methodologies
Technology without apologies
Military eschatology
The anti-astrology
Of algebraic algorithms
Mixed-market materialism
Acronymal hymnals
Constitutional dilemmas
And institutional whims are
Whipped into exigencies
Indifferent to casualties
In deference to contingencies
Counterinsurgency
Now a growth industry
New sense of urgency
Banking hopes
On starlight scopes
Camouflage, Cabot Lodge, and espionage
Sabotaging the cabotage
Agitprop, caps for cops, pallet drops
Sources in shops, schools of hard knocks
Patrons, partners, tree-top choppers
Couriers and carriers, sky-high fliers
Sellers, buyers, fields of fire
Concertina wire in horizontal spires
Bomblets, leaflets, bombastic pamphlets
Amulets, Ann-Margret and assorted starlets,
Shields, swords, punishment and rewards
Pacification and CORDS
The Geneva Accords
Furloughs, Dak To, ratios on Rostow’s say-so
Westmoreland and McNamara
The whole panorama
Abracadabra a propaganda extravaganza
Mamasans and papasans in black pajamas
Marvin the Arvin tested for stamina
Telltale signs
Between the lines
Could be by design
Small arms and mines
And mine detectors
Plainclothes inspectors
Sensors, defectors
Censors, mentors
Landlords, renters
Rallies, tallies, targeted valleys
Agent Orange
Where foresters forage
And guerrillas pillage
Village to village
Hamlet to haystack
With promises to pay back
Scorning those who stay back
In hidey holes behind the buffalos
And of course us with our memos demos dominoes
Ambiguous vows
Drawn-out vowels
Grunts and growls
Mildewed towels
Irritated bowels
Rome plows
Visored brows
Squints and stares
Guys in chairs
Splitting hairs
Blissfully unawares
Of weed in the reeds
Asses in the grasses
Loonies in the boonies
Marines in their teens
Troopers toting bloopers
Green Berets every which way
Ricocheting across the passageways
Bracing for monsoons, typhoons, profiteering tycoons
Platoons re-repairing pontoon bridges
Squads on watch from rocky ridges
Glitches, stenches, monkey wrenches
Terms and trenches
Berms and fences
Grilles and grates
Towers, gates
Perforated plates
Pylons, pythons, indigenous payrolls, artesenal arsenals
Hand signals, foot patrols
Remote controls, opinion polls
Risk adverse
Tense and terse
Don’t make it worse
Power of the purse
When accidents happen
Ask the captain
For solatium
Small consolation
Call it a donation
De-escalation
Trends and correlations
Extraneous extrapolations
Become predictive
Almost addictive
When you factor in tractors
Hectares and vectors
Societal sectors
Ballistics, mystics
Updated statistics
Noted characteristics
Procedural mechanisms
For optimistic pessimism
And vice-versa
Bureaucratic inertia
Putative realists
Straight off the B list
Projecting confidence
Invoking providence
Maneuvering for prominence
While aerial surveillance
Corroborates the evidence
All the elements
Of aggregate intelligence
And not a clue
How is it, sir
Howitzers rumble
While we slumber
Aiming at nothing
Scrapping, scuffing
Feinting, bluffing
Atonal accent
On harassment
Intermittent interdiction
Attenuated attrition
Undivided attention
Bystanders gawk
As snipers stalk
A random walk
Shoulders hunching
Soldiers bunching
Numbers crunching
Add it, audit
You touch it, you bought it
Mission creep
Slippery steep
In it for keeps
With raids and sweeps
And rogue regimes
Roaming restless dreams
The less it seems
Sips and seaps
Lips and leaks
Tics and tweaks
Coos and peeps
Did something beep?
Who was it parked the jeep?
No sir yes sir
What’s the answer
Begs the question
What’s the lesson
Whose aggression
True confession
Suppressed progression
Compressed repression
Contrived expression
De liber oppression
Our obsessions
Cross lines of succession
Cosine regression
At off-site sessions
Per persnickety perfectionists
And antipodal antagonists
Overloaded with loyalists
Neutered neutralists
Allies at the PX
Peasants in native dress
Potentates in residence
Posturing as penitents
Professing innocence
Listening for resonance
As long-range reconnaissance
Disappears into new frontiers
Muck, mud, leeches, overreaches, and moans
Veers into crud, thuds, duds, Doors, and Stones
Karma postponed
Trade-off understood
Would that you could
Bad with the good
Baby with bath
Do the math
Subtract divide
Take it in stride
Steal inside the marsh and eddies
Step around the Bouncing Betties
Steady, Eddie
Going hot
Ready or not
Anticipate
Save the date
We can’t
wait –
Break break
quick quake quaver quiver
s-sh-sch-shimmy shiver
smack
slap
crack!
snap back backtrack blowback rollback oh crap
wake up
scrunch up
sit up jump up
what the
shut the
but the
black to white
kill the light
fleeting seconds
lasting impressions
detonations deafen
grab your weapons
sirens wailing
sergeants yelling
incoming shelling
heart a-pounding
blood a-rushing
fussing, cussing
bare feet scuffling
fatigues rustling
boots, no socks
dude in flipflops
misfit steel pot
practically hip-hops
crossing sand
as flares swing
over no-man’s land
on parachute wings
they chirp they sing
above the swamp
mortars thump
artillery whomps
machine guns belting
barrels near melting
preposterous phosphorus
incandescent effervescence
evanescent luminescence
inferred inferno
tempestuous tempo
ear-ringing crescendo
louder by the minute
gunpowder, propellant, and insect repellant
prick the nostrils
hark the hostiles
rat a tat
crisp clap crackle
battle rattle
stereo static
semi-automatic
no antics, no panic
more manic than frantic
if you see ‘em have at it
nothing to see
except scenery
soupy greenery
the usual humidity
paths and paddies from memory
malarial estuaries
febrile dysenteries
actuarial obituaries
matériel sanctuaries
mercurial mercenaries
expeditionary adversaries
defaulting to others
to fill in the colors
imagine – no, don’t
unless you know what you want
best to buckle up
knuckle down
spelunker in the bunker
hunker in the clunker
it’s a stumper
mother humper
bump in the road
lump in the node
momentum slowed
pendulum pushed
from out of the bush
in God we trust
hush, it’s been discussed
adjust
no rush
breathe, seethe, air pet peeves if you must
flex, stretch, etch and kvetch
fiddle diddle doodle dawdle
ho hum twiddle your thumbs
pretend your helmet’s a drum
chew gum
dip snus
hang loose
tap a beat
stomp your feet
until it hurts
whatever works
clerks and jerks
a little too perky
outlook murky
it began, like so much, with a surprise
where the airfield lies
just out of reach
between town and base, road and beach
a momentary lapse
midst the shanties and shacks
Charlie jumped the gun
sentries overcome
perimeter breeched
outside in, inside out
seeds of doubt
speed of thought
brought to a halt
ought to’ve been caught
situation fraught
nappers sappers
satchels shrapnel
sandbags sumps
ammo dumps
ruptured pumps
punctured rumps
flickering shadows shuddering shades
rocket-propelled and hand grenades
planes in flames
hangars scorched
trucks torched
fuel burning
tables turning
soundtrack staccato and strobic
incommunicado and heroic
pilots scrambling
through the gunplay
propellers churning
down the runway
up and away, out of the fray
over the strand, above the bay
aviators with attitude
attaining altitude limited latitude
orders of magnitude
ratcheting orbits
formerly dormant ornery hornets
taunting torments, Damoclean ornaments
haunting performance, significance enormous
one peels, wheels
falls like a nut from a coconut tree, gravity
to grave
so brave
cut short
abort! abort!
pulls up, a helium balloon
we have Buddha instead of the moon
silhouette
pirouettes
Skyraider descends like a hand stroking a pet
cannon the pop-pop of a balloon against bicycle spokes
spits spurts spatters
clatters clutters
engine stutters
throttles, strains
regains thrust, skeeballs up
spirals down
revisits resounds
bursts
roars
more, more
rains it pours
whirl curl snarls unfurls like at a German locomotive
on "Twentieth Century,” a TV documentary
swoops through the years
loops to the ears
rekindles old fears
aren’t we all volunteers
sons of guns of pioneers
indexed to our gazetteers
inadvertent souvenirs
whoom kaboom
tattoo of doom
iron broom
scours the room
and the glands vibrate like tuning forks
and the teacher tells about Mussolini's son-in-law saying
it was beautiful like a flower blooming
it’s not history it’s happening
maddening, addling
straddling layers on layers
baffling players and prayers
prospective purveyors
underminers overstayers
unofficially unconventional
incrementally multidimensional
centrifugally centripetal
encircling the citadel
certainly know it well
country cleft
who’s left wins it
spins it
downtown out of bounds
outgunned, out of rounds
checkpoints checkmated
intimidated if not eliminated
rough toughs had enough
Phantoms off
what the f four
casting for
a living-room war
Puff fills the void
redoubts destroyed
forces deployed
costs ignored
losses endured
bosses assured
public implored
critics deplored
cut the cord
the hidden unbidden
now does once didn’t
pause
air like gauze
musty, dusty, smells of straw
` that awe that gnaws
hems and haws
oohs and aahs
for all their flaws
dudes had balls
died for the cause
true and false
bent to the yoke
went for broke
in one fell stroke
broken
and unspoken for
not our cohort
anymore
thunderstruck
so abrupt
ponder what
came unstuck
just our luck
nothing to duck
or shoot
or scooch or scoot
or even salute
loosen the boots
wiggle the toes hold the nose
GI joes flicking Zippos
passing smokes
rehashing stale jokes
cramped and chafed
rifles on safe
pins in place
chicken-wire interface
while Skyraiders strafe
and tracers lace
filigreed asymmetry
an epiphany debased
empathy displaced
disbelief distended
belief untended
no harm unintended
carry on
stifle a yawn
so label us pawns
implicit, complicit
illicit, insipid
it’s only a visit
soon to be gone
one day we’ll miss it
and we won’t be alone
the clarity, the stakes
posterity awaits
how the heart aches
the night breaks in pieces
light fills the creases
dawn
the commotion concealed
what sunup reveals –
kicked-out, ripped-up, stripped-down urban jungle
utilities jumbled
vehicles crumpled
street signs mangled
banners tangled
columns angled
villas in shambles
guerrillas pummeled
compounds crumbled
architectural mumbo-jumbo
art deco geckos
stuck on stucco
splintered blistered
wrecked racked
blackened ruined
fractured strewn
hacked and hewn
dadaist palms
unexpressed qualms
queasy calm in the gut
somewhere short of throwing up
images tarnished, car parts and carnage
rats rummaging through the garbage
smoke plumes
probes resume
who to whom
and whom to who
high on fumes
scent of metal more than mental
pungent piquant all too frequent
vaguely medicinal up close and visceral
field-force offices and hospital
provincial capital
one vulcanized sandal
and a once-pink parasol
lie aside the sidewalk
Coca-Cola logo
seagull on a flagpole
cathedral on a low knoll
no, no bells toll
we’re in a lull
what’s the latest?
do they hate us?
did they bait us?
train station on hiatus
Buddha on pedestal
unblinking, unthinking, unthinkable
swastikas on slopes
dragons on ropes
down to the pagoda
its posse comitatus
over quota
no-go the status quo
uh-oh, tiptoes
footfalls
pitfalls
pratfalls
catcalls
bats mauled
walls spalled
thatch charred
glass shards brickbats
tic tac bric-a-brac
this and that
tit for tat
tet
hair wet as worms
maggots squirm
into a Rorschach inkblot
stinkpot pre-rot
if seen
you’re shot
if shot
you’re not
thus low and flat
is where it’s at
save Buddha on the hill
still as in ever
as in water
as in born
unadorned, shorn
torn
borne
reborn
past in surfeit
present perfect
future splendid
open-ended
and on the run
up to a point
which is the point
you go beyond
ain’t over yet
too soon for regrets
get out the gazette
revise the goals
devise a story
plug the holes
strut the glory
allegory salves the stings
though half the things
worth mentioning
aren’t functioning
and underlings are wondering
is anybody governing
and who the hell is covering
when the hueys aren’t hovering
government is only human and machines
money and schemes
lone wolves, disparate teams
raised expectations, revamped regulations, rules
deputized fools, management tools
assumed authorities
bemused majorities
abused minorities
shifting priorities
ironies
With the American and South Vietnamese infantry committed to Saigon and those places where the North Vietnamese committed theirs, the battle for Nha Trang became one of small, often improvised, units. It played out slowly, block by block. Sensing need as well as opportunity, accounting specialist “Win” Winogrond of Watertown, Wisconsin, stowed away in the medics’ three-quarter-ton truck headed for town and there joined American-led irregulars moving on a machine-gun position believed to be in a bungalow at the end of a street. A Vietnamese man with a rifle stepped out from rubble to the side of the bungalow. Friend or foe? He shot Win in the midsection. An American lieutenant ran over, provided cover, checked the wound, radioed for a medevac. On hands and knees, blood dripping onto his carbine and the dirt around it, Win couldn’t stop laughing in the realization his life would never be the same; consciousness had made him a survivor. The truck he came in on rushed him to the hospital. After that, military police inspected every vehicle that left the base. You needed a reason.
Eyes blink mechanically
And shut with a click
Project onto a screen
snow fluttering after dinner
each flake part of something bigger, dimmer
reminders to remember
remove finger from trigger
round from chamber
red to amber
sitrep typed
optics hyped
glasses wiped
arms stacked
midnight snack
hamburgers in the officers' mess
under a street lamp reading step-by-step directions for the
assembly and utilization of the light anti-tank weapon
making friends
and enemies
amends
means to ends
matriculation speaker saying
"Introduce yourself to the persons on your left and right.
One of you three won't be here for graduation."
The third consecutive sleepless night
The lids lift on resolution's ropes and habit's pulleys
Buddha alight
in line of sight
positioned right to report
from the seaside resort
the perfect retort
to skewed perceptions
misconceptions
self-deception sporadic reception
insurrection and uprisings
sound enticing
from over the horizon
where activist strategists
envision the pageantry
diplomatic pleasantries
fodder for fantasies
common man their currency
forget the families
and the economy
take the embassy
and Hue overrun
one nation stunned
another in tatters
civilians scattered
Charlie battered
the spell is shattered
Nha Trang lost in the clatter
let talking heads natter
it’s Walter Cronkite that matters
and instigators, investigators, commentators, advocators
provocateurs, raconteurs, up-and-coming cinematic auteurs
middle-age yogis, older fogeys bagging groceries, inauspicious Hare Krishnas, assembled Quakers, movers and shakers, policy makers
senators, janitors, mid-level managers
anglers, wranglers, stars-and-spanglers
meddlers, levelers, prescription peddlers
monitors, chroniclers, popular barometers
panelists, fatalists, amateur analysts
professional pugilists, prognosticating futurists
teachers, preachers, putative impeachers, motivational speakers
peaceniks, beatniks, draft resisters, half sisters
younger brothers, gold star mothers, founding fathers
next of kin, best of friends, he or she without sin
mustered ancestors, flustered fact checkers, wild guessers, thesis testers
profound professors, principled protesters, conscientious objectors
4-F for the duration, the occupationally or educationally deferred
politically conferred, Guard and Reserves
silent majority ready to party
hard hats in hand strike up the band
hawks and doves
who do you love
none of the above
each to his station
prone to exaggeration
righteous indignation
retaliation recrimination
disintegration of the nation
international dissemination
external damnation
imperial divination
communist penetration
all indications
too much information
it’s causation frustration
vocation location
where to begin how to end
when it’s Buddha, Buddha again
The bullet grazed Winogrond’s liver on the way in and his spine on the way out. Million-dollar wound, he cracked before his flight to Japan. Despite other options this draftee, with a BA in philosophy from Madison and an MBA from Stanford, will insist on returning.
near-sighted misguided
not easily righted
far-sighted correctible
if detectable early
before the hurly-burly
finds the middle surrounded, confounded
blindsided, derided, incited, invited
by barkers at the carnival
pandering to the faithful
hankering for the fanciful
suckers at the tidal pool
dumpsters at the landfill
hammer and the anvil
amateurs by the basketful
missionary and the cannibals
moral is big eats little
fast takes slow
boy gets girl
smart must know
The sheep was last year, out to pasture
Buddha witness
Inauspicious monkey business
Victor Charlie on an isthmus
Listless, witless, swims with fishes
Strung along and stranded
All but abandoned
Out of the loop
No chance to regroup
Groups being divisible
Down to the individual
With essence inalienable
Their presence replaceable
Each interchangeable
In one sense not another
Their ranks expand
Please understand
They’re neither numbers nor names
They’re men,
Women, and children.
Or they were.
A sea breeze blows
As boys known
Back home
Doze off
Too deep
To hear the rooster crow
Not until some 45 years later will VA doctors have to redo the mesh in Winogrond’s abdomen. In the meantime he’ll marry, help raise five kids, three of them adopted, divorce, remarry, become a widower, spend most of his life abroad, and settle, at last, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, birthplace of the blues.
Precision and rhythm lift us from the isms
Waft us through a prism
Where refraction redacts visions
Into exercises in diction
The diction a fiction
A proxy at best
Standardized test
The depiction an intervention
Invention a convention
Comprehension on the cheap
Redemption a leap of faith
Should you leave it to fate
Or the stars align
Seek and ye shall find
Nearly everything rhymes
What was one of a kind
Is all in the mind
The spirit entwines
The body unwinds
Until it’s over
It’s almost over
Released by the infinite, leashed to the finite,
Adrift in the twilight
Sleep a stray
Lives day to day
Give it something to chew on
To go on
A bone of contention
Mother of invention
Best of intentions
Ebb and flow
How it vexes
The man from Texas
Next to go
Brand new nexus
Death and taxes
Wounds and welts
Yips and yelps
Coonskin pelts
Nothing helps
Lose the news
You lose
Buddha rolls
In memory of H.R. Winogrond
1942-2014
Frank Light first drafted this in 1968. The death of his friend Winogrond 46 years later prompted a fresh look, leading to extensive revisions. Now retired from government service, Frank has had his nonfiction appear in a number of literary journals, most of it adapted from an unpublished memoir titled Adjust to Dust: On The Backroads of Southern Afghanistan. His poems have appeared only in The Review, O-Dark-Thirty, and NOVA Bard. Well, years ago a haiku co-written with his wife Sally appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser.
