troop formations on the River Hydaspes

take a shot from your hiding place
in the colonnade--I got no fear,
I line you up, spread data in rows

like acrobats defeated by elephants
along the wide river Hydaspes.

this is no place for military action,
no sign of victory for a newly won empire,
either in the numbers or in multitudes.

ethnic identity is always a better gauge
for peoples’ staying power than any statistic
you could drop out of your bullet-ridden hat.

strains of foreign language get washed down
to the river every monsoon season, down,
purged from this land to the waiting jaws

of the beasts of the sea.

8/8/06, edited 11/5/06