It Rained
they dripped from my panama sky as their planes droned onward…cotton canopies…nylon nets…strangling…satiny shadows sprouted
from the clouds…they hummed.
tilled earth…humid…rich…cushioned fall…in leathered boots…crunch…broken grass…leaves rent…slap…click…drone…mind…groan…manure
the lost wind swept clear the drop-zone…it has angles…and knives…rent…glide
prayed before he jumped…snatched back upward…god said to stay in the air…don’t fall
i said it…i was that god
get out of my sky!
get back in the plane where you belong, you red, white, and blue bastard
time…fate…
elapse…hate
round whirling in his canvas cloud
bullet’s song went pop….shards of memories…corn harvest…soda…lips parted…motor droned…pink tongue…glisten…downy fuzz at the small of her back…red blotchy earth…it rained
he passed flowers…lady bugs dried from the sun…yellow-green smell of broken stems…unyielding rock…sinew stretched…slipped…snapped…surprised…screamed…bone
burned tortillas…charred flour…shard of flower…on the roof…it was hot inside…the motors droned…not the sky…smoke and burned hair…cotton…plastic
the oil spilled…it was warm between my legs
don’t!
i peed
occipital bone…flesh…lead…hair…corn harvest…lullaby…blue-green coca cola bottle…puppy’s breath…flannel pajamas…dura-matter inside the bullet’s song
i didn’t like the raisins in the pudding…they were all swollen and tasted like a rotten something…or rum
corks floating…the labels are stamped through the burgundy…mine got caught in a whirlpool by the cracked mossy rock…his swam past…riding through the sunblast…gone down the…and fade…
How very different, Father. To me, this sounds like someone who’s life is flashing before their eyes, with the most random thoughts entering their mind. All the while, floating through the air, bullets flying, life draining, and then no more. At least that’s what I got from it. What inspired this?
October 29, 2009 at 3:01 pm
It is rather different, Nate, and it wasn’t so much inspired as it was ‘assigned’ in my creative writing class. We were told to write something about an American paratrooper entering the conflict in Panama years ago. And you’re right…things didn’t go well for our guy…he broke his ankle/leg during his landing and then we see his final thoughts before and after he’s taken a final bullet to his head…flashes of images that he saw in his descent and then in his walking around…results of fire and destruction, and finally his end.
October 29, 2009 at 4:07 pm