Afghanistan, July 1969 – Page 4

Boy leading a blind old man to a war
Irsuy: of Sultan Mohammad 7 July.

The garden planted by Bahan made by
soyr up a straw: An mint plane tree
casts deep shade while below light heated
plantings of willows and white poplars, acacia
and pines. Silver and green foliage and
stark white trunks. A dense mulberry
heavy with tree-colored fruit. A refreshing
spot after a fiendish day. Poor P.
he was wrong, obstinate and wrong
I warned and was right. Triumphantly
right. The layers of Christian charity, peeled
off like a banana skin – or like our own
first blackened then sloughed off then raw
and pink and blotchy in the heat and
the dust. Bagram is perhaps first
to elude us. I don’t think for one
another attempt is worth while.

I think of the New England coast, lobsters
brine, fog, clams and cranberry arrongs.