Darkness
and the Silence of the Night
was all that mattered
we floated down the river
under cover of a moonless sky
only starlight too weak
to reach beneath the jungle canopy
where tigers crept
monkeys screached
but not that night
invaders, aliens, strangers
we did not belong, our scent foreign and repulsive
the belching odor of diesel fuel
repugnant to the natives
hateful to the 'cong
the smell of fear and sweat polluted
with pot and opium and beer and scotch
the smell of unbathed bodies
and unwashed souls drenched in blood
waiting for the flash of gunfire
the piercing flight of a single arrow
the whoosh of mortar
but only silence
and silence
is loud.
Frederick Smith
1997