Jamie Edgecombe
Silence at Quang Ngai
Stark and immeasurably simple; informative in fact, but much
more. Doubt cuts the stitching from my intent. My title
‘Accidental History Lessons’
| Poet: | old photographs pass with familiar ease sites like ‘unconquered Everest’ entice the mind into pleasant irony; |
Rightful Critic: -Silence-
| Poet: | extracts like ‘a darkie does a step dance...’ show smiles that fool a trick society, but crack spheres stare, deep cut ridges tell of a labelled blacker truth. |
Rightful Critic: “-19 year old-
| Poet: | Another planet, I live 1967, calm National Geographic photos, superiority, the escalation of war |
Rightful Critic: “-single, Caucasian, Male-
| Poet: | Washington’s marbled lists sigh remembering those who returned, |
Rightful Critic: “-from SPOKANE-
| Poet: | destination Hue, pretty palaces, temples, women. Reflect, with under a year in the pre-Tet Offensive dawn, what happened to these two beautiful students? |
Rightful Critic: “-WASHINGTON-
| Poet: | I am in crush comfort though, knowing Times have changed with purposeful momentum; I swap again and again it stabs |
Rightful Critic: “-Casualty was on 16 Aug 1967-
| Poet: | once existent people talk: ‘where I conduct most of my studies is heavily infested with poachers... Park boundaries have no meaning.’ &(Dian Fossy, Jan 1970) |
Rightful Critic: “-QUANG NGAI-
SOUTH VIETNAM, HOSTILE
| Poet: | I know where you are now, ghost in my living room, strung-out floating amongst a guerilla trade & screaming bones of Rwanda’s recent genocide. |
Rightful Critic: “GROUND CASUALTY,
MULTIPLE FRAGMENTATION WOUNDS-
| Poet: | All of which continues my feeling of uneasiness. |
Rightful Critic: “-Body was recovered.”
Silence.
Page(s) 38-39
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