Blog 7 ARB

The first poem I choose to describe is the very first poem called "Camouflaging the Chimera". A chimera in Greek mythology is a fire breathing she monster symbolized as a lion. This poem describes how they would make themselves one with the land for they were monsters preparing to pounce on their enemies as "we held out breath, ready to spring the L-shaped ambush". They "wove" themselves to the land, they became the land, they did not exist to their enemies as they were "changing from day to night... and the river ran through their bones". It gives good description of battle tactics by the Vietnamese as they did use lots of ambushes and dug themselves into craters int he ground and had grass on their helmets to deceive the Americans in thinking it was just the land when really it was nothing but a death trap.

The next poem I want to explain in relation to the war is "You and I are Disappearing". This poem is a great example of soldiers and how they disappear to their loved ones back home and because they are gone for so long they disappear to their women as well. It starts of explaining of a girl "burning inside my head". The thoughts of here in the beginning help get you through the war, but eventually they effect you so greatly that she starts burning like "oil on top of water" or a "cattail torch dipped in gasoline". Finally the fire burns out, the thoughts leave ones mind, and no longer is she in existence to you, she has been "driven by a godawful wind".

The final poem I would like to explain is "Losses". In this poem it describes how soldiers come home to something that it lost. "After Nam he lost himself", when he came back, he didn't know who he was or where he had went. Life would never be the same. A big theme was the loss of the women that soldiers faced even if they came home. It seemed that those who survived ended up losing a girlfriend and those that died ended up losing a family. It something that every soldier has to face and how the face it leads to how they live the rest of their life.