Dredged earth is a weapon,
as bombs rained down from above.
Below, like ants on a work farm,
villagers crawled through a narrow, dark, dank, dreary maze of tunnels.
A sanctuary to survive, to hide, to run, to elude.
Thrust!
Jack-in-the- Box guerrillas emerged to strike, to kill, to conquer.
Beware, the camouflaged spiked bamboo traps hidden under thick foliage.
Vincent J. Tomeo is a poet, archivist, historian and community activist. For 32 years a New York city public high school teacher of American history. He currently volunteers at the 9/11 Tribute Center Museum at Ground Zero. He has won 99 awards, and his poetry has been published in the New York Times, Comstock Review, Mid-America Poetry Review, and several others.
