原诗：
Corktown
Groceries ring
in my intestines:
grits aint groceries
eggs aint poultry
Mona Lisa was a man:
waltzing in sawdust
I dream my cards
has five holes in it,
up to twenty holes;
five shots out of seven
beneath the counter;
surrounded by detectives
pale ribbons of valor
my necklace of bullets
powdering the operating table.
Five impaled men loop their ribbons
’round my neck
listening to whispers of valor:
“Honey, what you cryin’ ’bout?
You made it back.”
Caves
Four M-48 tank platoons ambushed
near Dak To, two destroyed:
the Ho Chi Minh Trail boils,
half my platoon rockets
into stars near Cambodia,
foot soldiers dance from highland woods
taxing our burning half:
there were no caves for them to hide.
We saw no action,
eleven months twenty-two days
in our old tank
burning sixty feet away:
I watch them burn inside out:
hoisting
through heavy crossfire,
hoisting
over turret hatches,
hoisting
my last burning man
alive to the ground,
our tank artillery shells explode
killing all inside:
hoisting
blown burned squad
in tank’s bladder,
plug leaks with cave blood:
there were no caves for them to hide—
In the Projects
Slung basketballs at Jeffries
House with some welfare kids
weaving in their figure eight hunger.
Mama asked if I was taking anything?
I rolled up my sleeves:
no tracks, mama:
“black-medal-man ain’t street-poisoned,”
militants called:
“he’s an electronic nigger!”
“Better keep electronic nigger 'way.”
Electronic Nigger?
Mama, unplug me, please.
A White Friend Flies In from the Coast
Burned
—black by birth,
burned
—armed with .45,
burned
—submachine gun,
burned
—STAC hunted VC,
burned
—killing 5-20,
burned
—nobody know for sure;
burned
—out of ammo,
burned
—killed one with gun-stock,
burned
—VC AK-47 jammed,
burned
—killed faceless VC,
burned
—over and over,
burned
—STAC subdued by three men,
burned
—three shots: morphine,
burned
—tried killing prisoners,
burned
—taken to Pleiku,
burned
—held down, straitjacket,
burned
—whites owe him, hear?
burned
—I owe him, here.
Mama’s Report
“Don’t fight, honey,
don’t let ’em catch you.”
Tour over, gear packed,
hospital over, no job.
“Aw man, nothin' happened,”
explorer, altar boy—
Maybe it’s ’cause they killed people
and don’t know why they did?
My boy had color slides of dead people,
stacks of dead Vietnamese.
MP’s asked if he’d been arrested
since discharge, what he’d been doin’:
“Lookin’ at slides,
looking’ at stacks of slides, mostly.”
Fifteen minutes later a colonel called
from the Defense Department, said he’d won the medal;
could he be in Washington with his family,
maybe he’d get a job now; he qualified.
The Democrats had lost, the president said;
there were signs of movement in Paris:
Fixing Certificates:???Dog Tags:???Letters Home
Our heliteam had mid-air blowout
dropping flares—5 burned alive.
The children carry hand
grenades to and from piss tubes.
Staring at tracer bullets
rice is the focal point of war.
On amphibious raid, our heliteam
found dead VC with maps of our compound.
On morning sick call you unzip;
before you piss you get a smear.
“VC reamed that
mustang
a new asshole”—
even at movies: “no round-eye pussy no more”—
Tympanic membrane damage: high gone—
20-40 db loss mid-frequencies.
Scrub-typhus, malaria, dengue fever, cholera;
rotting buffalo, maggoted dog, decapped children.
Bangkok: amber dust, watches, C-rations,
elephanthide billfolds, cameras, smack.
Sand&tinroof bunkers, 81/120 mm:
“Health record terminated this date by reason of death.”
Vaculoated amoeba, bacillary dysentery, hookworm;
thorazine, tetracycline, darvon for diarrhea.
'
Conitus
’: I wanna go home to mama;
Brown’s mixture, ETH with codeine, cortisone skin-creams.
Written on helipad fantail 600 bed
Repose
;
“no purple heart, hit by ’nother marine.”
“Vascular repair, dissection, debridement”:
sharp bone edges, mushy muscle, shrapnel: stainless bucket.
Bodies in polyethylene bag: transport:
'Tan San Nhat Mortuary’
Blood, endotracheal tube, prep
abdomen, mid-chest to scrotum—
“While you’re fixin' me doc,
can you fix them ingrown hairs on my face?”
“They didn’t get my balls, did they?”
50 mg thorazine—“Yes they did, marine!”
Street-Poisoned
Swans loom on the playground
swooning in the basket air,
the nod of their bills
in open flight, open formation.
Street-poisoned, a gray mallard
skims into our courtyard with a bag:
And he poisons them—
And he poisons them—
Electronic-nigger-recruiter,
my pass is a blade
near the sternum
cutting in:
you can make this a career.
Patches itch on my chest and shoulders—
I powder them with phisohex
solution from an aerosol can:
you can make this a career.
Pickets of insulin dab the cloudy
hallways in a spray.
Circuits of change
march to an honor guard—
I am prancing:
I am prancing:
you can make this a career.
Makin’ Jump Shots
He waltzes into the lane
’cross the free-throw line,
fakes a drive, pivots,
floats from the asphalt turf
in an arc of black light,
and sinks two into the chains.
One on one he fakes
down the main, passes
into the free lane
and hits the chains.
A sniff in the fallen air—
he stuffs it through the chains
riding high:
“traveling” someone calls—
and he laughs, stepping
to a silent beat, gliding
as he sinks two into the chains.
Debridement:???Operation Harvest Moon:???On Repose
The sestina traces a circle in language and body.
Stab incision below nipple,
left side; insert large chest tube;
sew to skin, right side;
catch blood from tube
in gallon drain bottle.
Wash abdomen with phisohex;
shave; spray brown iodine prep.
Stab incision below sternum
to symphis pubis
catch blood left side;
sever reddish brown spleen
cut in half; tie off blood supply;
check retroperitoneal,
kidney, renal artery bleeding.
Dissect lateral wall
abdominal cavity; locate kidney;
pack colon, small intestine;
cut kidney; suture closely;
inch by inch check bladder,
liver, abdominal wall, stomach:
25 units blood, pressure down.
Venous pressure: 8; lumbar
musculature, lower spinal column
pulverized; ligate blood vessels,
right forearm; trim meat, bone ends;
tourniquet above fracture, left arm;
urine, negative: 4 hours; pressure
unstable; remove shrapnel flecks.
Roll on stomach; 35 units blood;
pressure zero; insert plastic blood
containers, pressure cuffs; pump chest
drainage tube; wash wounds sterile
saline; dress six-inch ace wraps;
wrap both legs, toe to groin; left arm
plaster, finger to shoulder: 40 units blood.
Pressure, pulse, respiration up;
remove bloody gowns; scrub; redrape;
5 cc vitamin K; thorazine: sixth
laparotomy; check hyperventilation;
stab right side incision below nipple;
insert large chest tube; catch blood drain bottle ...
The Family of Debridement
Theory: Inconvenienced subject will return to hospital
if loaned Thunderbird
Withdrawn. Hope: Subject returns,
Treatment:
Foreclosure for nine months unpaid mortgage;
wife tells subject hospital wants deposit,
Diseased cyst removal:
'Ain’t you gonna give me a little kiss good-bye’
Subject-wife: To return with robe and curlers—
Subject tells friend he’ll pay $15 to F’s stepfather
if he’ll drive him to pick up money owed him.
“This guy lives down the street,
I don’t want him to see me coming.”
“It looked odd for a car filled with blacks
to be parked in the dark in a white neighborhood,
so we pulled the car out under a streetlight
so everybody could see us.”
Store manager: “I first hit him with two bullets
so I pulled the trigger until my gun was empty.”
“I’m going to kill you, you white MF,” store manager
told police. Police took cardload, F and F’s parents for
further questioning. Subject died on operating table: 5 hrs:
Subject buried on grass slope, 200 yards
east of Kennedy Memorial,
overlooking Potomac and Pentagon,
to the south,
Arlington National Cemetery.
Army honor guard
in dress blues,
carried out assignment
with precision:
诗歌的分析与解读
这首诗是对战争、创伤、身份和生存的强烈、原始和生动的探索。它将破碎的图像和强烈的情感交织在一起，呈现出一个在战场、个人记忆和战后生活残酷现实之间移动的叙述。
意义与主题
这首诗以生动的意象开篇——“杂货在我的肠子里响起”——立即将读者置于一种身体上，几乎是痛苦的现实中。诗人挑战传统定义（“玉米粥不是杂货 / 鸡蛋不是家禽”），打破期望，暗示一个失序或被误解的世界。
对战争的描述是严酷而残忍的：伏击、被毁的坦克、燃烧的士兵，以及死亡的无情存在。叙述者在越南的经历，提到胡志明小道、柬埔寨和激烈的战斗场景，揭示了战争的混乱和恐怖。反复出现的短语“他们没有地方可以躲藏”强调了士兵的脆弱和暴露。
这首诗还探讨了战争的心理创伤。叙述者是“电子黑人”，这个词反映了被疏离的感觉和黑人退伍军人面临的复杂身份斗争。叙述描绘了战场与家之间的脱节，社会缺乏理解，以及与创伤的内心斗争。
诗的后半部分深入探讨了医疗创伤——手术、清创和伤害的身体代价——突显了人类身体的脆弱和痛苦的愈合过程。血液、弹片和医疗程序的意象与“天鹅在操场上徘徊”和“投篮”的超现实或象征性意象形成对比，后者可能象征着短暂的和平或正常的时刻。
诗歌技巧
- 意象： 这首诗使用生动、常常暴力的意象来唤起战争和创伤的感官体验。
- 碎片化： 诗的结构是碎片化的，反映了叙述者破碎的心理状态。
- 重复： 像“燃烧”和“吊起”这样的短语创造了节奏感，并强调了暴力的无情性质。
- 对比： 天真（孩子们打篮球）与残酷（战争、伤害）之间的对比突显了诗的情感深度。
背景与作者
这首诗让人想起越南战争诗人的作品，他们试图捕捉战斗及其后果的原始、未经过滤的体验。许多这样的诗人本身就是退伍军人，利用诗歌作为处理创伤和批判战争的政治与社会背景的手段。
诗中对种族身份和疏离感的关注表明，作者可能是一位黑人退伍军人，反思战争的外部冲突和越南时代美国种族身份的内部冲突。
反思与个人回应
阅读这首诗是一次具有挑战性的体验。它让读者面对严酷的现实，并强迫与暴力、失落和身份的主题进行互动。碎片化的风格要求积极的解读，反映了创伤本身的复杂性。
这首诗唤起了对退伍军人的同情，以及对战争心理和身体代价的更深刻理解。它还提出了关于社会认可、种族不公和战后重返社会困难的重要问题。
教育价值与学习要点
学生和儿童可以从这首诗中学习到几个重要的教训：
- 历史背景： 理解越南战争、其对士兵的影响及其社会影响。
- 同情与创伤： 了解战争的心理影响和退伍军人的挣扎。
- 诗歌手法： 识别意象、重复、碎片化，以及这些如何传达意义和情感。
- 批判性思维： 分析身份、疏离感以及天真与暴力之间对比等复杂主题。
生活与学习中的应用
- 战争与和平的讨论： 以这首诗作为讨论战争代价和和平重要性的起点。
- 心理健康意识： 强调对有创伤经历者的支持和理解的必要性。
- 文化与种族身份： 探讨身份如何影响社会中的经历和看法。
- 创意写作： 鼓励学生通过诗歌和碎片化叙述表达复杂情感。
阅读理解问题
- 短语“他们没有地方可以躲藏”的重要性是什么？
- 诗人如何使用意象来传达战争的体验？举两个例子。
- “电子黑人”这个词对叙述者的身份和经历有什么暗示？
- 描述这首诗如何描绘战争对叙述者的身体和心理影响。
- 你认为这首诗为何将日常生活场景（如打篮球）与战争意象并列？
- 医疗程序和伤害在诗的叙述中扮演了什么角色？
- 这首诗如何挑战传统的英雄主义和勇气观念？
- 这首诗在你作为读者中唤起了什么情感？请解释你的回应。
- 诗的碎片化结构如何影响你对叙述者经历的理解？
- 读者可以从这首诗中学到关于战争和社会的哪些教训？
阅读理解问题的答案
- 这个短语强调了士兵在战斗中的脆弱和暴露，突显了他们没有安全的地方可以躲避敌人。
- 诗人使用生动而残酷的意象，例如“五个被刺穿的人把他们的丝带绕在我的脖子上”和“坦克炮弹爆炸，杀死所有人”来传达战争的恐怖和暴力。
- 这个词反映了叙述者的疏离感以及种族与军事身份交汇的复杂性，暗示了他人施加的非人化标签。
- 这首诗通过对伤口、手术和失血的描述展示身体影响，而心理影响则通过破碎的记忆、疏离感和创伤传达。
- 这些场景将天真和正常生活与战争的残酷形成对比，强调了冲突造成的破坏和失落。
- 医疗程序象征着战争的身体代价和生存与恢复的痛苦过程。
- 这首诗通过展示奖章和丝带背后的混乱、恐惧和痛苦来质疑传统的勇气，暗示英雄主义是复杂且常常悲惨的。
- 回答会有所不同；读者可能因诗歌对战争和创伤的生动描绘而感到悲伤、震惊、同情或不适。
- 碎片化的结构反映了叙述者破碎的心理状态和创伤记忆的支离破碎。
- 读者了解到战争的严酷现实、退伍军人的挣扎，以及在社会中理解和同情的重要性。
这首诗是一部深刻的作品，提供了丰富的学习和反思材料，帮助读者深入参与历史、人类经验和诗歌表达的力量。
