“there! ” said the mouse, “you laughed at me when i promised i would repay you: but now you see, even a mouse can a lion

Picture American soldiers as beasts.

Explanation:

In yusef komunyakaa, "camouflage the chimera", the meaning of the chimera portrays the effort of American soldiers in resembling as beastly animals. This appearance is due to camouflage that soldiers use to blend in with the environment.

This is shown throughout the poem, but the first stanzas make this more evident:

"We tied branches to our helmets.

We painted our faces & rifles

with mud from a riverbank,

blades of grass hung from the pockets

of our tiger suits. We wove

ourselves into the terrain,

content to be a hummingbird’s target."