Captain Blood in Vietnam
           for Sean Flynn

Maybe he thought
he was some kind of
existential cowboy,
indestructible as a hero
in his father's feature
films, a man with a camera,
brass balls & a partner in
crime, getting right in
Charlie's face on the edge
of all the frontiers, so far
past known perimeters,
point men on patrol
used to see their jeep
disappearing around a
dead man's curve in
demilitarized zones,
blowing weed and taking
candid shots of the dead &
the soon-to-be, the ultimate free-
lance war pornographers,
one step ahead of Uncle
Sam & half a step behind
Sir Charles, Dennis Hopper's
role model for Kurtz's
magician with a lens &
a stoner's complete lexicon
of "Hey Man's… you
should see what he does best,
man, the Man is a genius…"
long before the movie or
the character was conceived,
until he was caught
over the line, where press
credentials & a long line
of bullshit did you no good,
got you captured & locked in
a cage to be pissed on, beaten,
reviled and finally killed, so
far behind the lines his capture
was just a rumor & his body
would never be found.