FOXHOLE

Your nearness thundered through me and I shook, And when you said, “You’re trembling.” I said, “Yes.” And then you asked, “Ya scared?” What could I say? We two had been together since the States And I had kept the bluff and we were friends. Why, I remember how it was we met. We both were standing naked. You were soaped From head to foot and then the shower quit. I never heard a rhythmic stream of words So finely mouthed, and chewed and spitted out But now we lie together in the sand Upon a tropic beach. The enemy, For all our air and sea and boasted might, Had held his little island and opposed Our coming with such surety of aim That half our comrades dropped face down, face up, And did not feel the black and blooded wash That played between their sprawled and spreaded legs. We two were forward on the farthest flank That hoped to outmaneuver and destroy The deep pillbox entrenchment where the Nip Had taken his position and command Of all the open, dead-man beach between. We’d found a little dune and dug us in, And all the long tormented afternoon We lobbed our ineffectual grenades Against the fort foreknowledge of the Jap. When night came on we got the word to hold, But silence and the darkness held us close And I could hear your breathing, feel you near. And then there went through me an echoing roar As when a mountainside of snow and ice Lets loose its frantic grip and tumbles down. And then you said, “You’re trembling.” I said, “Yes.” You asked, “Ya scared?” And I said, “Yes,” again. The silence fell between us for a while. Your hand reached out and rudely grasped my arm. “You’re lying, kid.” Your grip was strong and fierce. You held me there as if to make me shout With pain or ecstasy, and time rushed by Unclocked. You shuddered then and let me go. “You’re lying, kid, and so, sweet God, am I.” The blast of brilliance, flame and heat that came Exploding close beside us threw the sand, And shell, and death and you and me apart. How long we lay half buried none will tell I know I wakened somewhere near the dawn And saw you stretched and saw your trousers torn. I crawled beside you, brushed away the sand That filled your eyes. I held you in my arms, And pressed my mouth to yours as if my breath Within your lungs would bring your arms around me. I know I sobbed, and wept, and cursed, and prayed. My fevered hands I burned beneath your blouse To touch your unresponsive, frigid flesh. And then I knew that you were dead, That you were dead, That you were dead, That we should lie no more!