By Greg Burns
Memorial
january third
tet offensive mistakes,
this is bullshit,
this is horror
this is ground beef violence,
fought in the forever wet.
in the dark and
the ghosts and the ghosts,
dropped jellied gasoline
and sprayed death into the
thick green, into
the antique jungle,
and tired hills.
and now your children
live in the decay of it,
in the dissapeared limbs,
in the unexploded.
and the ghosts, and the ghosts.
Untitled
Not Looking in 1968
I won’t be looking
when they carry them off
the Hercules Jet
careful not to smell, not to admire
the rigidness of that nineteen
year old’s arm.
In 1968, the way is not to look
only cry, wait for the salute on the tarmac.