Arlington by Lightning

we did not take our children to Washington   to see the dead just yet
our plan to stand with Eleanor in metal relief   to photograph waterfalls
explain bread lines recite Martin   stand beneath the example  what a man
who thinks heaven waits for him is willing to do but soon we found
ourselves descending   the Vietnam memorial   the underworld before us
then as swiftly   behind  each photograph a love left beneath the names flowers

rotting at the edge of stone the V above our path taken up   to living trees
that night we took a tour   that stopped at Lincoln & when the deluge hit
we unrolled the plastic tour bus shroud   & a veteran tied it in place
traded admired speech the guide decided Arlington the gate still open
began his tale of confidences   the Japanese thought Americans weak
stomached   shot for maximum damage & Kuribayashi tonight I hear

of you   the 38 year old samurai his emperor’s reluctant warrior
who’d lived among us   reverential   a reader of Shakespeare   a family man
first   who told the women of Iwo Jima to wear pants to avoid rape
sent away comfort women   steeled discord from the inside out   skin
black peeling   at 122 F  they dug the tunnels   21,000 men   teenagers
an island waiting to die             by lightning    the white   capped shadow’s

waves    small dominos   white fingertips honor gathered in the dusk
of our ignorance tidal swells of names thrown from the sea   cast
about for eyes   cut in half   from the body’s temporal shore he’d write
to Taro & Yoko    before Tokyo burned   100,000 to ame for the last wave
he stripped his uniform   of identification of all insignia walking into
the fire   all thoughts of heaven    the idea of ashat its best   a forgiveness

Maximilian Heinegg’s work has appeared in The Cortland Review, Tar River Poetry, Crab Creek Review, December Magazine, and The American Journal of Poetry, among others. He lives in Medford, MA, where he’s a high school English teacher at Medford High School.