RAVEN REMEMBERS

                                  Blackbirds in a cold war
                                 Filled my skies for a lifetime:
                                  Freedom, death, life, hope
                                 Screeching from the shadows

                               Secrets in the eye of the beholder
                           A world of strange love and full metal jackets:
                               A round of drinks in a Saigon bar
                              Or among the Hmong mountain bears
                            And a round of ammunition for the cannons-
                            Who had time for canons and guided missals
                       As the sky blackened with flak and surface to air missiles?

                                Seeing so much, seeing so little
                                Gaining nothing, giving everything
                           Smashed like a shot glass in the name of policy
                      Screwed to an ejection seat built by the lowest contract bidder
                      Forbidden by the rules of engagement that made more widows
                                  Than I want to remember.

                            How many times did I see the Missing Man
                         Missing you, praying the enemy would be missing me?
                  Was I missing the point in trying to stay until all of our friends could leave
                          When we weren't even supposed to be there at all?

                           The song of neutrality in the season of extremes
                       Drew fire from the ground, a volcano of hate from strangers
                          Who didn't even know what they were dying for.
                           Who were they dying for in this puppet game?

                A bear? A dragon? Old Ho Chi Minh and his trail in the Kingdom of Elephants?
                          It's just a road, it's just a mountain, it's just a rock.
                            But it's not just a village filled with children,
                         grandmothers and grandfathers who didn't understand
                                 What we were fighting over
                          And now, I wonder, who really understood at all?

             Centuries ago, Raven brought light into the world- a white trickster burnt black by the trip
                  The bird of the prophets, whispering wisdom in the ears of ancient Greeks
                   and old one-eyed Odin. Drawing life, the strength to fly from the dead
                             and everything everyone else abandoned.

                          Defending those who could not defend themselves,
                              Raven remembers. Raven remembers.
                          Raven remembers and fought and circled and saw.
                                 Raven saw the roads break.
                           Raven saw the hearts and minds won and lost.
                         Raven saw the refugees amid the warriors and at last,
                              Raven knew. Unarmed, obsolete and
                            Unarmored, like a knight, without question,
                        Raven never looked back as he dove toward the enemy-
                    The snakes in the tiger grass, calling for death, watching his brothers
              Fall from the sky, one by one, captured, crippled or dying in everything but their hearts
                   That dared to believe in the power of freedom, the power of the future

                   The dream of the day when they would raise their drinks with the words
                     "Nevermore" as they nailed the damned lid on the coffin of war.
 
 

                                 -Bryan Thao Worra (1999)
                Dedicated to the men who helped my people when I could not, who stayed when
                 others would not, who gave more than anyone had a right to ask for, and who
                      were too often forgotten by those who should not. Thank you.