First Encounter

Leroy V. Quintana

You have stopped for a break, stand up
to put your gear on and hear shots,
see the flash of the muzzles.
You have been followed.
The whiteness of the branches
that have been cut along the way
tells you you’re on a new trail,
but the sergeant is a stateside GI:
barracks inspections, rules and regs.
You are probably surrounded.
There are five others beside you.
You are twenty-three.
You look quickly around you:
the sky, the trees.
You’re far from home.
You know now that your life
is no longer yours.