Glove of War - Ernie Carpenter

[Larry Robinson]

Glove of War   
                                                                 
His nightmares are
of war forty year ago.
Dreamt the asbestos glove
hanging at his left side,
gone, hands seared
on the red-hot fluted
gun barrel.
Changed out the M60 barrel
on a moving Huey
in thirteen seconds,
hail pouring down, 
killing all that stood,
crawled before him.
“I killed every mother jumper I saw,
 that’s what they told me to do.”
The asbestos glove let him kill
quicker.
Two tours Vietnam,
 door gunner, nighttime strolls in the jungle,
LRRP sniper.
No sleep now,
this nightmare like the last:
angry, 
blood red, 
bodies,
dead young men,
smells, 
sounds,
rapid streams of lead 
splayed
into living forms.
Body whole,
countenance unshaken,
soul ripped asunder.
We forget what they gave,
what war serves back.
Why not our guilt, 
not his or hers.
The glove of war envelopes
in its searing grasp.
Cannot
shake it free,
 nor put it down
 nor push it away. 
Burnt by that hot
heat once again.

	- Ernie Carpenter