solitary confinement
insects witness my agony
mango groves distant calling
we must not do this to one another
no napalm flurries no dogtag furies
saigon madonna vietnam rosary
recall incident near phuloc
nude vietnamese woman bound spread eagle
remains of black pyjamas at her feet
Buddhist monks plead her fate  clutching
beads for prayer picture of god held
aloft three g.i.s look on one black
one confused doubtful one
contemplating rape arbitrated
by arvn saw that look that look in her
eyes begging look insects
said they see it in mine wonder
now what happened did they rape her
hurt her kill her in isolation
regret not reaching past that doubt
not helping she's laughing at me now
in my box jacks box jack club
in her black pyjama and halo
wrists raw ankles raw maggot companions
ghosts of slant eyed civilian babies
flit through my cage bars insect friends dart in
never out crunchy insect friends witness my agony
feel no pain unmoving
upstairs companion never complains
long for conversation
confide in insects falling
maggots falling from cage above like rain his
open mouth endless scream full of maggots
he never talks cries tries maybe he's
pissed
 

another perversion
the colonel flips across channel after
channel & settles on cartoons watching
the tube he begins to talk to no one
in particular about wanting to have sex
with characters from josie & the pussycats
the name screams sex he explains
& pointed out the celluloid cutie he
longed for another in his long
list of perversions he'd always gone
or the 2 dimensional types before
he offered might as well
make it official

like us
coffee cream
endless scream
the bulge
seoul
my lai
goddamned animals
feeding on one another
they might know more than we
about some things
than we do
like looking
looking away when
someone they know is hurting them
and the other has to let go
and not tear out their throat
like us

twitch
bandages twisting rustling maggots
shift & sway undulating beneath
flowing coat liquid light green ebb
surrounding flesh & bandages
flame & water male & female &
not have not oh say can you see what
what were you saying
anyway
who was it it it who are
you anyway
twitch muscle twitch
anyway

flesh
crunchy bugs look oh look crunchy bugs
those maggots are eating them ants cover the twitching
mantis it is dying half its face eaten in
reproductive frenzy coupling lust poke at it with
that stick its moving but dead its moving
from within rustling dead leaves poke at it
ants move up the stick rustling
eat those maggots ants eat their soft
flesh it is stolen from some corpse vegetable
or animal they stole their flesh
from something dead wonder if
i knew them

ashes scatter to the ground shifting breathing are they alive
                                                            am i?
who is i nebulous & insubstantial as ashes fleeting sometimes
                                                memories flicker
can't remember do i want to was good person maybe not not
                                                   now certainly

my turn
slant eyes in black pyjamas
glare through the cage bars prod
with stick jab jab jab
trickle of blood and he chuckles
leaves a vile trail of hate 
and hating me acknowledges 
the reflection of his emotion in
my eyes would i have treated
him different if our roles were
reversed i kid myself into believing
i would