American Marine
It’s not a minivan’s bumper sticker
advertising Semper Fi, not the neighbor boy,
or your nephew, tu sobrino, not that former classmate,
the poor kid with something to prove,
this radiating bruise, these fields of green,
the browns and blacks, such multitudes of white.
But it shall prove forever faithful,
this unflagging azure, yours and mine,
bound as we are to this shameless,
star-spangled cerulean, this fast bruto,
these young men, their midnight commerce,
a steely, certain sheen to their bright sacrifice,
this acidic sapphire, this oceanic empire,
this bleeding stump, this cyanide.
