Indonesia (AP) — Soldier Found

Deathless joining of the ultimate
Was the warrior's prize they said
Just before the landing craft
Opened wide its great white teeth,
And he vanished in the jungle,
Cursing Nakamura's world
That screamed his name in Japanese
On the beach at Morotai.

Conscripted aborigine,
Attun foraged thirty years,
Stabbing snakes in strangler trees
That tasted better boiled than fried,
And while his snake was boiling hot,
He thought about the shrines he made
Of combat bootlace camouflaged
After every funeral pyre.

Sometimes there were carcasses
Whose tags were those of dogs they said
He dragged to where the GI's slept,
Two days through five kilometers,
And when the night was full moon bright
He prayed for ocean pea soup mist
To leave the mangled body there
And etch a cross in sand nearby.

They'll take him to Jakarta
After morning photographs,
Although he wanted Kao-hsiung
To hear again its poetry,
But as the newsmen sleep tonight
He sees the ghost of Nakamura
Hover in the whirlybird
Who flies with him tomorrow.