[Poem] Meat

We had wrapped things up early
a Friday afternoon in spring and we
sat in the truck staring out the window.
The radio was playing country music
and neither of us said a word
until the foreman began a story
about his time in Vietnam.
I had know him for a couple of years,
knew he served in Nam, but he
had never spoke of his time in the war

"Sometimes," he began,
"we'd come upon a pile of dead bodies,
both American an Vietnamese.
The area would be would be wired with mines
and the dead would be booby trapped with grenades."
A lot of them soldiers had to be left behind," he said.
"Even if you could set off all the traps there wasn't
 a whole lot left to send back home."
He paused for a moment, gazing out the window
with his forearm resting across the steering wheel.

"One time we were in the jungle
camped out for the day on tank patrol.
We watched this giant python catch a rabbit.
It wrapped it's body around it
and crushed it before swallowing the whole thing.
It didn't move afterwards and one of
the guys from the squad blew its head off."

"We tied it to the back of the tank," he said with
an amused snort. "Dragged it all through the jungle."
"As we passed a village a group of Vietnamese
gathered around the tank smiling and yelling."
"Meat, Meat...they kept yelling."
"Meat!"
"We cut the snake loose and several of the villagers
carried it away. We watched as they stoked up barbecues
 and chopped the snake into pieces."
"They cooked it up and ate the whole thing."

He paused again, gazing out the window
for a moment before checking his watch.
"About time to head back in" he said
and started up the truck.
As the only world I knew came rolling
past the windows I leaned back in my seat
trying to think of something to say.
But the more I thought, the more blank
my mind became. Like I didn't know words at all.
It was better that way though, that silent ride home.

Lee L. Lind