Nam Night

Pete "Doc" Fraser

God, how I hate the night. 

Twilight creeping in graying out the green, 

turning the jungle black. 

Fear grows inside like the winding of a clock. 

Under the black cover of darkness, 

the hunter becomes the hunted 

and Charlie owns the night. 

The fear is as real as the night 

and grips us all in its unrelenting hold. 

Through the sleepless hours the fatigue builds 

sapping both mind and body. 

In the tense haze of early morning, 

you lie on the jungle floor 

while waiting for the morning sun 

to take away the night's hiding blanket of darkness. 

It is in the morning, 

as the sun paints the jungle from black to green 

that you begin to relax the night's vigil 

and you take the countryside back from Charlie.