U.S. Navy Photo: “Dawn Landing on Wake Island”

All nature’s knowledge 
Is to stay unknowing— 
Ours, to confess confusion: 
—Fyodor Tyutchev 

I knew it was dawn 
With the sun blurring whitely 
Through the gray clouds, 
But I’m glad someone wrote that. 
The light and the words make a bridge 
Across the water to the sand. 

In this place there is no wind: 
A big flag on the landing craft hangs straight down.
Silhouette men hold their stick guns 
Above the sea and wade to shore. 

I don’t know the story of Wake. 
I don’t know these men, 
But I know other soldiers with other stories.

They’re all about the place 
Where it’s good to fight 
Where time unmakes itself 
And death is awake. 
Somewhere I can’t go. 

This beach looks like many beaches. 
These small waves could be anywhere, 
And the clouds, too, with the sun 
Erasing the sky and spilling down. 
But this is nowhere.