ENGRD 190 - Poem to Recite

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My black face fades,

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hiding inside the black granite.

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I said I wouldn’t

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dammit: No tears.L

line 5

I’m stone. I’m flesh

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My clouded reflection eyes me

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like a bird of prey, the profile of nightL

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slanted against morning, I turn

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this way — the stone lets me go.

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I turn that way — I’m inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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again, depending on the light

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to make a difference

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I go down the 58,022 names,

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half-expecting to find

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my own in letters like smoke

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I touch the name Andrew Johnson

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I see the booby trap’s white flash

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Names shimmer on a woman’s blouse

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but when she walks away

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the names stay on the wall.

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Brushstrokes flash, a red bird’s

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wings cutting across my stare

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The sky. A plane in the sky.

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A white vet’s image floats

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closer to me, then his pale eyes

LIne 27

look through mine. I’m a window.

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He’s lost his right arm

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inside the stone. In the black mirror

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a woman’s trying to erase names:

Line 31

No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair.