Richard D. Preston

MOONLIGHT ON THE DELTA

Full Moon over the Delta
Cruising through the night
Jungle to the left of us
And jungle to the right

The engines moaning softly
It’s all that we could hear
While we glared into nothingness
Drenched in our own fear

Marines aboard a steel gray ghost
Gliding on liquid death
The stench of rotting jungle
Made it hard to draw a breath

Fishing boats and villages
Glowed dimly by lantern lights
As a thousand eyes in the darkness
Pierced our souls as we drifted by

We slipped into the blackness
Just around the river bend
When flashes from the tree line
Echoed loudly with out end

Bullets sparked upon the steel
Then ricochet into space
On our knees we opened fire
Survival etched upon our face

The ships 50 caliber roared to life
Sending hell into the trees
Then silence fell upon the Delta
Gun smoke hung low in the humid breeze

Water rippled beneath the ghost
As it continued to glide along
Into the dead of the Mekong night
We searched for the Delta dawn

Author’s Note: Next to spending the night in the listening post this was one of the most helpless situations I was ever in, in the Nam; cruising the river on a gray target in the dead of night.