night sweats

                (just another Agent Orange adventure)

night sweats

dioxin derails
the central nervous system,
drifts homeless through the body
for decades.

an alphabet of symptoms,
conditions, diagnoses,
debilitations, diseases-
even death,

and night sweats.

    (bisect the body
    from widow’s peak
    to pubic bone,
    snap a chalk line
    or straight-edge
    a marker.

    for days, sometimes
    weeks
    half the body remembers
    hills and jungle,
    ambushes and incoming.
    the taste of fear,

    pours sweat enough
    to soak sheets and sleep,
    confound specialists,
    and confer temporary celebrity
    on the unwilling.)