I wrote “Entering the Gulf” (Daydreams, 2004) in 1966 during a deployment on the Lloyd Thomas (DD-764) to the Middle East. The incident of the sea snakes seemed a fitting subject for the trip. The Arabian Peninsular was in disarray, Aden was already a dangerous port requiring armed guards everywhere we went, Saudi Arabia had just eliminated slavery about five years before, the Israeli-Arab conflicts were going strong and oil was king.

The whole Middle East seemed like a nest of snakes. And in the 47 years since, nothing seems to have changed. We continue to learn and forget the same lessons over and over. We put our troops at risk with no definable objectives or exit strategy and we fail to understand the culture and religions of the area.

Black blood still seems to flow throughout the region and our troops pay the price.

 

May God bless and protect them.

 

Glenn K. Currie

 

                                                     Entering the Gulf

 

The ocean’s surface boiled,

Alive with red sea snakes,

Wildly striking out at

The churning of our wake.

 

The foam grew thick with blood,

Welling up from below,

Hell’s gates broken open,

Releasing venom’s flow.

 

These serpents seemed to guard

The entrance to this sea,

Warning those who pass here,

“This blood will flow from thee”.

 

Suddenly they were gone,

The Persian Gulf lay dead,

Silence like a gunshot,

So quick the vision shed.

 

The quiet like a veil,

Drawn o’er the Earth and sky,

An eerie, empty mask,

Concealing angry eyes.

 

The land then came in view,

It’s rage burning the air,

Desert sands spewing flames,

Black blood flowing everywhere.