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by Loretta Tobin

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If I were a cameraman filming a war documentary,
I’d start with a wide-angle aerial view
at morning twilight, the outline of buildings
gray-black in the diffused light.
As the sun rises above the horizon,
I’d pan streets on base
to show life in a war zone—
soldiers walking to breakfast,
their voices too distant
to distinguish individual words,
Humvees and 10-speed bicycles
kicking up road dust,
riders wearing helmets and flak jackets,
M16s slung over their shoulders.
When the camera catches vehicles speeding past,
I would pan
the street until I come to the front
of the chapel,
then narrow the depth of field,
focus on a single slice of the scene,
switch to slow motion,
diminish all sound until there is silence.
I would end
with the slumped-over body,
a soldier on the bench
and, beneath, the pool of dark-red blood.

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Loretta Tobin, born and raised in North Dakota, graduated from Minnesota State University—Moorhead with a B.S.Ed. She served as the NMCB 18 admin chief when they mobilized to Al Asad, Iraq. Now retired from the Navy Reserve and the City of Everett, she lives in Everett, Washington. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: As You Were, Line of Advance, The Deadly Writers Patrol and New Plains Review. Her poems are anthologized in: Willowdown Books 2020 anthology: Poems from the Lockdown, Our Deepest Calling, and Solstice: Light and Dark of the Salish Sea.

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