Source Unknown
Have you ever been intoxicated? No,
not drunk, intoxicated.
You'd know if you had:
That feeling that, well-
You're not excatly floating.
You're just disconnected from
That blur that is the rest of the world around you.
Your heart is racing,
But not pounding,
It's more like fluttering.
Your head feels ... swimmy,
And it's as though you're going to faint, But you know you won't.
You're just stuck in that in-between phase When all the world spins
And you let go of all conscious thought. That's the kind of intoxication I'm speaking of. So, have you ever been intoxicated? Who me? Have I?
Well, when you took my hand just now, And looked at me,
Not at me, but in me,
And smiled, I was intoxicated.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
When your face came rising
above my crumpled life,
the only thing I understood at first
was how meager were all my possessions.
But your face cast a peculiar glow
on forests, seas, and rivers,
initiating into the colors of the world
uninitiated me.
I'm so afraid, I'm so afraid,
the unexpected dawn might end
ending the discoveries, tears, and raptures,
but I refuse to fight this fear.
This fear-I understand-
is love itself. I cherish this fear,
not knowing how to cherish,
I, careless guardian of my love.
This fear has ringed me tightly.
These moments are so brief, I know,
and for me the colors will disappear
when once your face has set.
Eric Torgerson
The Story of White Man Leading Viet Cong Patrol
-AP Dispatch, Des Moines Register, August 4, 1968
The slain enemy resembled
an American Marine
who was 18 years old
when he disappeared.
The violent episode
was one of the strangest
in this strange war.
*
For a moment
the two young men --
the American Marine
and the white man
in the uniform of the enemy--
stared at each other.
"He had an AK47
automatic rifle
but he just looked at me."
Gordon fired
after a moments hesitation.
*
Several of the Marines suspect
that the unknown white man
whom they call "the Caucasian"
could have shot first
but deliberately held fire.
At the debreifing
everyone was afraid
to say what they'd seen.
