Central Visayan Mountain Range, Philippines 1945
when hiding from enemies at least one dream away from machines & from bodies that do not sleep that he drags his thumb along his lover’s smudged chin, notices his face bathed earthen the trees once giants, are giants again he tells the moon they come savage and without undoing after a grenade falls a fresh cavity in the ground appears as a nest and he wishes his own children to forget him they will be the lucky ones to live enemies must believe him gone they are not from these caves dear santos dear virgen evoke what luz perpetual dear palmettos & salt water be all and his mouth too his lover lies down wet ground speaking only what he knows dripping face the shrapnel moon he whispers his want to dissolve like this in ferns