Pacific American Anxiety Gallery

            after Rigoberto González

PORTRAIT ONE: SOLDIERS’ RETURN

On or about 29 December 1944, Palau, Japanese soldiers and Charlie Smith walked through

            Dense jungle together

On or about 29 December 1944, Palau, Japanese soldiers killed Charles Smith

            Buried him and others on Police Hill

On or about 29 December 1944, Palau, Japanese soldiers executed the Englishman

            Paces past desperation ravine

When you expect a landing to be made by the enemy, dispose of the prisoners in a hurry

So the Japanese soldiers revisited the site of execution to dig up prior bodies

On or about 29 December 1944, Palau, an Englishman by the name of Charles “Charlie”

Smith, alias “James” was not a prisoner of war by nature

Charlie or James or Jesuit missionaries or the Untalan-Hondonero family

should not have been prisoners of war

On or about 29 December 1944, Who is war?

Japanese soldiers cremate the bones and rebury them in a single hole

PORTRAIT TWO: ISLANDERS EXTINGUISHING FIRES

Emergent fires            suppressant                 contaminants

Deployment systems  recall               crash dummies

Young boy hands young girl hydrogen atoms            replaced          by toxic fluorine

The palm tree              rhinoceros beetle-infested      fires upending its uses and myths

Young girl catches fire           on thighs of young boy

Decimated ecosystems kingfishers mated in captivity

Young girl touches young boy’s burning back creates limestone breccia

Young girl spits in hands brushes through young brother’s flaming hair

And kelps and sea forests sway in de-oxygenating currents

Young brother hands young sister his eyes blurred with neoplasms and lymphomas

Young sister throws into the ocean their diseased gaze drifting so far they are now

What we call horizon  the farthest diasporas

Their hands holding nowhere without fires

Their bodies archipelagos radiant jungle heat

PORTRAIT THREE: RITA BORGIA SMITH ON PAPER

I find the name of his lover, Rita Borgia Smith, my great-grandmother,

In a report, an analysis to support an official recovery operation,

Non-confidential version

Great-grandma Rita, sneaked food to her husband, Charlie, while he was in captivity.

She traveled through the jungles without being detected at least three times.

She gave birth at least three times. Their children: David 18, Elena 15, and Henry 1

            When Charlie was hidden in the jungle of Palau

Bullet residue on paper, 87 pebbles on Philippine beach, saltwater crocodile skin moccasins

            Worn on invaders’ feet

Pixels on screen, BDUs on American soldier backs as anchors dredge native mangrove fauna

Into capacious silt

Rita dreams in uprising of silt her youngest child gnawing sweat-saturated cloth

clinging to her body

Rita feeds Charlie prayers of wild orchids and bush warblers and morningbirds

first appeared in Cordite Poetry Review