May 19, 2012
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Markers
Last night became
So many thousands of nights ago
Two kids - Two buddies came to see
Would they really see
Would they really understand
Before the souls of these boys deep in the earth
Stirred and awakened?
Most of them were our buddies
But three were young Filippino Muslims
Eleven guys all told - interred quickly
Warranted by the fierce heat of equatorial forest
Yet
How could their souls stir and awaken?
When the pronouncements were spoken days before
By the Padre and the consenting Imam
And the circle of the living
Dispersed
Rapidly roughed-out markers were made by the villagers
Graved with crosses stars and crescents
Some decorated with dog-tags
Some draped with the Lightning Bolt of the 25th
They gleam in the blackness
Their white-washed coldness
In this warm alive place at the hamlet’s edge
Deep in Mindanao's bush
Is undisturbed
It rains every day at five o’clock
And when we’re gone the markers will be stripped
The jungle will quickly embrace and shroud them all
Mattress-cover body-bags dissolved
Nature’s internment begun
No one will ever find them… and back home…
A few will cry
A few will grieve
A few will mourn
A very few will understand
Comments (4)
This is a heartbreaking account. Thank you for posting it in the form of poem.
I'd love to know the story behind this. It sounds like WW2. Were you there?
@Roadkill_Spatula - Sorry to be so late in response... Yes, I was a combat artist attached to AFWESPAC and we would would create leaflets with the help of a couple of Neisis and their calligraphy to try and get the enemy to surrender... That would rarely happen as their officers would lie to them we would cut their heads off etc... Besides, they felt it was an honor to die for Emperor Hirohito as he was considered a god and would find them a place in their heaven...
Fascinating story. Have you ever written about it in detail?
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