At the mountain pass above Da Nang
rain chased the clouds like a whipping
dragon's
tail and
opportunistic stall sellers
hawking their ponchos and
umbrellas
and
squawking like seagulls at a sliver
of bait were shoed
away by our driver Lan
pronounced Lun.., Lun, who
told us that the pass
called Hai Van was
named by the Emperor
who looked to the
sky and down to the sea
and proclaimed the place
as 'Cloudy Ocean'.
And now above the carcass
bunkers of
A Battery 1st Light
Anti Aircraft
Missile
Battalion United States
Marine Corps, closer
to the heavens
a
humble altar sits precariously
and I saw a man
his head bowed
in the rain and
cloud: a spiritual
supplication silently
rising way
beyond Hai Van, way
beyond the
Cloudy Ocean, and way
beyond memory.
