Vietnam War Defoliation Mission a UH- 1D helicopter from the 336th Aviation Company sprays a agent orange on a dense jungle area in the Mekong delta. By Everett Historical at Shutterstock.
They All Died in Vietnam
Three forest cousins, all boys, my summer secrets
We hiked under hawk shadows, spun pancake flat shale
stones touch tipping Loyalsock Creek, arrowheads,
rattlesnake skins longer than my arms, salamander wranglers
The oldest Vernon lingered longest with my grandmother’s stories
He never liked to hunt except for stars and no one cared, not even the army
Only you can prevent a forest
Always tired, always hot, always wet, always in pain
Vietnamese bugs bit his eyes closed, his mouth stuck, oh the leeches
Carry a machine gun, Vernon, it’s worth the pack weight
This isn’t how war’s supposed to be, ambushes and booby traps
Sneak up, shoot Gook devils around supper campfires
Dark mummies topple face forward, warm food sparks up hot stars
Escape the jungle poncho, climb for coconuts quick, I dare you
No orientation, palms swaying, just staying alive
Only you can prevent a forest
Not just orange; pink, green, purple, blue, mix and stir
Dust sailing from a copter’s ass, some white angel dioxin
divining jungle into desert, bare feet feel for tripwires under dew
Vernon kept a snake alive underneath his shirt one night all night,
even snakes drown in monsoons, even the kings of that land, Cobra
Flight crews took off their shirts, washed their planes, swallowing in the dark
Only you can prevent a forest
Vernon home to Sullivan County and Pennsylvanian deciduous bark
Forgets he is
Vernon’s missing again, walking near Camp Brule, I’ll go get him
Cancer, cancer, cancer he got what the VA classifies as an Official Disease
No Agent Orange victims on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, which is okay
if they could just remind my cousin that stars don’t always fall from the ground
Only you can prevent a forest
Echoes from my Mother’s Closet
Gimbel’s Department Store
hat box, no hat
I tiptoe past, trailing
liddle kiddle dolls
her hand flutters
repurposed hanky
wiping lid, her ears
wait along hallways
for me, floral bedspread
a stiff, white nurse’s cap
my palm accepting
heavy drop of
cold gold pin
Geisinger Medical Center R.N.
Photographs
pretty girl
white bikini
Roof of Nurses’ Residence
white cap, dress, and shoes
Graduation Day, May 1946
smiling broad, teethy
no thin line that curls up
like something
becoming dehydrated
under midday sun
Stories
beds required sharp angles
burn victim whose skin
fell off in sheets she
collected from the floor
polio children weeping
inside iron lungs
homesick, no parents
for the darkest hours
encapsulated, staring
ceiling shapes, she
tiptoed the ward
stilling her shoes
maybe some
children dozed
Will I
ever sleep
toss and turn
log roll
back and forth
be sure I can
be sure again
hum something
cheerful
how about
Hey! Hey!
We’re the Monkeys!
People say we monkey around!
Try to forget
I have a mother
“No”
The Cocoa Plex
Two Screens
Burgundy velvet seats
fit for puckered buttocks
Kings, their young Princes
seated all along back row
That’s where I started
sinking to my knees
Rocky
Saturday Night Fever
The Goodbye Girl
Jaws
I missed a lot
making out,
middle Row YY
Like when that shark
yanked that girl Chrissie
out of an orangey sunset
ate her up
foot, limb and torso
while some boy
slept soundly
on briny beach
Movies flicker,
so the pawing
didn’t seem that bad
Without steady light,
life’s a half-truth
but later, my lips
were swollen
Nipples throbbed
underneath bed sheets
Feathered-hair
David Cassidy
thinks he loves me
Smiling, smiling
on the wall above me
My dresser top
Love’s Baby Soft Perfume
Bonnie Bell’s Kissing Potions
Revolutionary lip-glosses with a roller ball
Fruit flip
Strawberry Swirl
Cherry Smash
In college, a few
smashed my head
into their dicks
and yes,
it’s a job for sure,
too bad you can’t blow
the opposite direction.
While I picked pubic hair
out of my teeth,
I was congratulated royally
Wow, I never came like that before
You got your protein for the day
It wasn’t their fault,
those spoiled Princes
I was lost
I wanted a boyfriend
a date
a kiss
It took so long
to not
say
YES
Don’t tell me
you
never
got down
on your
knees
I bet someone
remembers you there
Especially when you
licked your lips
like you really,
really enjoyed it