We were hangin’ in Da Nang
on guard duty but still chill
after a long haul humpin’
our weapons through the jungle.
Man, we had not yet had
a toot off a rifle barrel –
this was no THC-induced
hallucination, dude!
We thought it was a glider –
some engineless Ultra Lite
or something – until it got closer.
It was a woman – all black!
She had long black hair,
shoe-polish black skin,
a beautiful figure
and black, bat-like wings!
Luff, luff... She flew
less than ten feet above us.
We watched her hang a Louie
and fly off to the horizon.
At first, we didn’t want to say
anything about the incident.
Didn’t want to be ridiculed
or dismissed as stoner idiots.
That’s it. We’ve never seen the like
of the thing since. Shape-shifter?
Witch? Some kind of revenant ghost?
Spirit hostess with the mostest?
I thought our names were
being called, so to speak;
that she had come to deliver
the news of our immanent death.
I admit it. I was scared stupid.
We all were. And I don’t have
any kind of explanation. Perhaps
a portal just opened up for a moment...
Maybe we were privileged to see
a creature from some other dimension.
I came to see the war as surreal,
the creature as my black angel.
