Graves Registration

Night after night
We watched the choppers come in
Like a row of fireflies
Dancing on legs of tracer rounds
Closer and closer
Louder and louder
Chop-chopping the air
Knife blades in the wind
Spiraling lower into the thick night
Delivering their death vengeance
Laughing with bared sharp teeth
Screaming “Hell fire and damnation!”
Like a Sunday Baptist Preacher
Delivering to the non-penitent
Their gospel of perdition
Contained in a fifty caliber chalice of blood.

Dark angels why are you waiting?
Remove the dead from their tangled death pose
Place them in the black plastic tomb
With their names driven between clenched teeth
Drag your black claws through their belongings
Rifle through their pockets
And send them off to their graves.