embarkment

Ha Tay, Vietnam

one-legged man forgets himself
                        arpeggio of dark 
the fake ray bans he'd been trying to sell for weeks are still in his hands
                        shiftywind shaft of straw movement in stones ashes lilting to
is he glad he hadn't sold that pair to see the sun better or the moon the darkness between
                        behind sheets a journey impossible to exist as twilight forever
for seventy-five years fat rats scutter & sup on dog feces
                        forever a person can live
the cone-hatted women mud-smirched men of the fields see ambered time
                        and smooth underbellies of songs rise into mist
children inch out with buckets of mauve ink-water at the behest of teachers
                        pale reed soaked in whispers
are told to look into the water to view the eclipse  not the sun itself
                        behind the image the imagination
workers wade in hay ears beyond the winded birds
                        behind words the intent  a distortion
sinewy arms dangling mouths eyes to another world smarting by the chant of their braced
                        bodies summing the nature of existence a total eclipse
the one-legged man removes his glasses   squints

Originally published in North American Review