Ambush

Imagine this: we are spaced beside the road
Like the five spikes of the red morning star
That I can just see now in the east
Or we are thin cracks in the bottom
Of the blue porcelain cup my grandmother used
To make me herb tea when i was sick, as a child

I am sick now whithout you. This road
Is the same road where years ago you herded
Your father's useless cows. At dawn we expect
An american convoy; and although i do not like
The word ambush, it is the only one left
In my vocabulary. I imagine how much

They will be surprised. Remember we once
Joked, that when we die we will go to America
Well now i think we only return here
Back to this island floating like smoke on the sea
This warm wreckage, these repeating movements where
The night is too long without you. It is your breath

On my cheek, your touch, the dusty roadside
Flowers i wanted to cover you with
Only there was not time. Two nights ago
I snuck into town to see that woman
My friend, I am sorry but she loved
Too many men, she tried too hard to

Come between us; and when she called me by your name
In the night, i should have broken her neck like a bird's
The black night is so long it could be the wind
The others are stationed around me and we
Communicate in whistles. Tell me, my friend
What you feel now. Whistle a soft song

So i can forget the hour. Hold me once
More in this world that has been measured
In calibers, that is quattered by crosshairs
And defined by what enters them
Once more before i step onto the road
In sunlight, you stolen automatic rifle

In my hands