Nancy Scott
MIAMI'S FIRST POW HOME FROM KOREA, 1953
He tries to eat but can't.
It's not that he doesn't want to.
The hum in his head halts him,
marches him further
and further into frostbitten hills,
chains him at dusk in a makeshift cage.
He's lost count of days, nights
prey to artillery of his own men.
Sharp edges pierce a low sky,
release bloody rain
that freezes on contact with the hard soil.
Survival depends on a skinny boy.
You take me with you, the boy says
in halting English, as if it were possible
to simply bow good-bye and head south.
The boy sneaks him clean rice, shoves
a metal cup between bamboo poles.
Now he sits in a diner with the blonde.
He orders a burger and fries, a milk shake.
He wants to be ordinary, do ordinary things.
When the plates arrive, he breaks out in a sweat.
Hands tremble as he tries to pick up the burger.
Aren't you hungry? the girl asks,
dipping fries in a pool of catsup.
He's hungrier than he can remember.
He feels the worm crawl up his anus,
settle in his intestines, waiting
for him to take the first bite,
waiting for its share.
* * *
DELICATE BALANCE
He can sit stone silent
like chiseled granite.
She wants to put a mirror
under his nose
to make sure he's
breathing.
He says it's because of the war.
Crouched in the jungle
nothing familiar but fear,
death thirsting for victims,
he'd figured out how
to separate from his body,
watch over himself
from a parallel plane,
trusting no one else
with his life.
Not much has changed.
He keeps things from her.
He's usually late,
rarely bothers to explain.
She makes allowances.
She'd spent those years
planting a garden,
inviting in friends,
death not rattling her door.
When she traces scars,
jagged and thick,
trailing over his shoulder,
he flinches
as if she's disturbed
a critical synapse
that keeps him steady.
He comes in her
with such intensity,
heat so ferocious,
she's afraid
of what it may cost him.
"Miami's First POW Home from Korea, 1953" was previously published in
Mudfish. "Delicate Balance" is from Scott's book Down to the Quick.
Nancy Scott is the managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal of
the U.S.1 Poets' Cooperative in New Jersey. Her poetry has been widely published in journals, including
Poet Lore, Witness, Mudfish, The Ledge, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Slant, Verse Wisconsin ,
and Pemmican. She is the author of seven books of poetry; her most recent,
Running Down
Broken Cement (Main Street Rag, 2014) was inspired by her long career assisting homeless families and abused
children. She has written numerous poems and short fiction about the effects of war.
More about Scott's work can be viewed at www.nancyscott.net.
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