Notes from the Camofleurs

–Karen Skolfield

The light in Afghanistan

is not the light in Vietnam.

If  vegetation, describe the leaf.

If  rock, its striation. If city, its doorways

and lintels, its hosting of guests.

Its gestures of welcome and warning.

Describe the wattage of searchlights,

the color of streetlamps, the wakefulness

of men. Describe the cigarette’s blooded eye,

a crimp of smoke. Describe evening’s

lift of heat, the riming of sweat.

If olive trees, describe the olives.

How a fig feels in the hand.

Of the women to be outfitted calculate

their curvatures and needs, if they require

more or fewer pockets for pens.

Determine torso length, musculature,

what weapons may be carried; where

the ammo belt sits, if more men

dress right or left, if concertina wire

bares its teeth every three inches or four.

Study how nature tucks itself into grasses,

study the striping of zebras, the panther’s

darkness, a savannah and the jackal

folded within; how a seal’s belly blends

with the sky when viewed from below.

A ptarmigan feathering into snow.

Describe the mission: peacekeeping

or suppression. Shield or storm.

Consider that a pattern may dazzle

or disrupt. Describe the sight lines:

heat-seeking technology versus scopes.

Scopes versus the sharp-eyed.

When a friend is not always a friend.

When a back might be turned. Consider,

at times, how the jaguar wants to be seen.