D.U.S.T.W.U.N. (Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown, a.k.a. the parts of a pop song)
I need to know
where you are
even when I don’t
even when I can’t
when intelligence concerns
are greater than a mother’s
I need to know
where your body
is on this earth
where the body
come from mine is
circling urban centers
where you turn vague
where I am just sitting
soaking wet
living the rivulets
swimming in cold
September water
“this is it, Mom”
“ok”
“I love you, goodbye”
I love you the verse
goodbye the bridge
24, 34, 38 hours
growing fears
and a widening war
Was it this day? —not this day
with ripe pineapple and Boursin
cheese on olive toast
a minus zero morning
and startled blackcrown
night herons
Ali Al Salem screen cast
to the TV—flight line, fingers
Quarry, Rock, Billabong quarter
back out to view
a bigger picture first
and second desert storms
I love you refrain
goodbye the hook
not that day
when the sun
caught your hand
still waving too far
down the road where
I stood and watched the hawk
awhile
before I got keys
unable to sit
in the feeling, not the day
when the Wapoo
turned metal
a skiff carved silver
silence of winter on water
—not today
where
I will be
here
where you will be
where spirals shut down
where I lose your signal
I love you the chorus
goodbye the break
I wanted you to be a poet
you wanted to be a pilot
now it’s tomorrow
where you are
and I sit
by an ocean
….
This poem first appeared in Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, vol. 13, by Southeastern Missouri State University Press, and can be found in the chapbook Caught in the Light by Layle Keane Chambers (Finishing Line Press) at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/caught-in-the-light-by-layle-keane-chambers/
Layle Keane Chambers is a performing poet, author & educator from Folly Beach, SC. Professor Emeritus of Theatre with an MFA in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. Her poetry has appeared in Collateral, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, “The Things We Carry Still” (Middle West Press), “Proud To Be V. 13” (Southeast Missouri State University Press) and has won the Poetry Society of South Carolina’s Perception Prize. She also co-authored “Glass: Gather. Engage. Give.” with her best friend, Debby Gilbert. She is a proud Air Force mom.
Connect with her online: Layle Keane Chambers, author (Facebook), @laylethewhale (Instagram), @laylekeanechambers (Substack)
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