PREPARING FOR WAR
MCAF Santa Ana, California, 1964

by:Enrique del Rosario
© 2001

coming in low, just barely above the sage,
climbing suddenly, then dropping again
down shadowed canyons
past the ancient layered rocks,
kicking up warlike clouds of dust,
then, like hurrying schoolboys,
departing in a chatter before the setting sun -
two Marine helicopters train for war
in the hills below Saddleback.

far away storm clouds gather
as a killdeer scurries across the wide arroyo.