Deserter
North, Golden Gate, March 2003
Slipping into a marijuana coma
Peninsula all lit up
Gun battery 129
Paces a high ridgeline on Hawk Hill
Hill’s foot, the hypothermic bay
Exhales out to sea
Frank Morris
Never made it
The bunker
Fell in disuse after WWII
Bronze rebar cuts through
The corps cement like every other
Bombed-out photo
There in graffiti
(real friends don’t fuck...)
Fill in the blanks
(Frank Was Here)
Machine gun slit, cat eye, outside
The iron swivel of a 16’’ cannon
Once Gyroscoped proudly, balls
Of destruction
“Balls of Destruction?”
Sounds better than Shock and Awe
But the ships never made it, now
Fast forward, pre-war
Hours slipping away
Steps that rise to nowhere
Walkways that lead underwater
A hollow sensation of apparitions
(talking about it only makes it worse)
Candlestick, 11 pm
Green infrared glow
Of fireworks undulates in heat waves
Super sonic booms
Jets overhead
What would Frank do
If he could do it all over again?
Great write Yarbrough. Sounds painful and unearthly and mix of emotion. I have been to the other side. Thank God I made it back for awhile longer to tell people life is truly precious.
Well penned write, deep, reflective and painful... "talking about it only makes it worse" just one of many great lines.
A first class sardonic view into the painstaking organization and preparation men will invest in creating scenes of utter carnage. The moment and the mindset rarely match, and, under certain circumstance, even when they do it's not a good thing.
Frank might do it all again I was thinking. It's hard to run from destiny or fate. We all will have a battle in life somewhere and the best we can do is hope to face it bravely. Thanks for the inspiration! Frank sounds like a brave guy
I just walked your poem..saw it all, enjoyed the desciptions, hypothermic bay, fireworks undulating in heat waves., graffiti...the last images of a dying man in a disused bunker, cold comfort indeed..thanks,. Green.
a write with information in command.