PANAMA
I jump into nothingness
From screeching,
droning blackness.
A thousand stuttering
embers
Rushing up, Arcs
of fire.
Red flowers blossom
beautifully
Far underneath
my feet,
As the trees
wave wildly
Anticipating
their catch.
I land in a raging
storm.
Hail rushing
by my face,
As I gaze at
the stars…
My god, so unbelievably
close!
The foreign grass
bruised by my fall
Smells of hot
deep summer mornings
Driving down
dusty country roads
While farmers
cut sweet sacrifices.
I creep in tight
reigned chaos,
Cautiously, an
alien in a strange world
Every particle
in my being screaming.
But I meet Another
and Another and Another,
Now we scream
(whisper) as one – “Bulldog!”
WE move in complete
confidence
Each hand knows
the other is a killer.
Bulletproof until
we die.
I see the Chaplain
silhouetted in the sky.
He is atop a
lichened rock vault
Planting Glory
on our “Arch of Triumph”.
He jumped into
hell with only a knife.
Then there’s
the lieutenant – the Greek god.
All through the
night he strode
Collecting brown
ghosts in white trousers.
How did these
men find heroes in themselves?
I rush forward
as dawn breaks bloody;
Shoot and move,
Shoot and move, an automaton.
Every rock a
fortress, every tree a barricade;
Acrid smoke bites
at my tongue and eyes.
The glowing hornets
rage past my ears
Making hurried
snaps on single-minded journeys.
I shriek a primal
scream, mixed laughter and rage
As I meet the
ONE that bears my name.
I lie in a broken
awkward pose.
Fluid puzzle
pieces of my life
Seep into the
ground beside me.
My breath rattles
a snare drum sound.
There is no pain,
only peace.
I hear the wop
wop wop as angels come…
They lift me;
I float through the kuna grass
And
I jump… into nothingness.
Written by a Ranger who served in B and A CO's
3/75 from 1988-1992.
