Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Occupied
Hero had same name as
Sniveling
Collaborationist. With
FREEDOM,
wrong man hanged.
Other
blithely shrugged
into 97th year:
“That’s Life!”
Given to tears
recounting
Loves.
Labels: army, collaboration, conquered, injustice, life, patriot, revenge, war
Monday, February 13, 2017
One Christmas
the Army gave me
a five-pound box of nuts.
Put it under my bunk
and took it out every once
in a while to chew.
Meditatively. The box
announcing, first, its provenance.
Something like
Nut Assortment. Grade-A, M1 A1
and on and on in chains of numbers.
Stenciled.
Every system must put nuts
in their place.
The sitting and chewing was not
a social act. Other troopers distantly
doing their things. Blurs. Well, any life
lends definitions of loneliness.
One of mine.
Labels: army, Christmas, gift, isolation, loneliness, system
Monday, June 13, 2016
about to...
“We, who are about to die, salute you!”
From Bellefleur, who could be scathing and
loyal at once.
“Let’s not anyone die!” I admonished him.
"We’ve trained for this!"
But it was pretty much a suicide mission.
He complained at the meeting to which I
and Associate Commander, Rendon,
were not invited.
Too ethnic for our tastes. Massively emotional,
and real tears when Marins went on about not
seeing his little daughter again.
The more complex Bellefleur persevered about
missing his slick litle Audi. He made its redness
poetic.
We knew these things because the secret meeting
is secretly recorded.
The following Four AM, Tellemon, the Afro,
laughed “A black man putting on blackface,
to advance the racist state!”
My Associate Commander ordered him to stop.
It came to me to tell him that next time he should
join the Army of Utopia, if he wanted purity.
My job was to treat him decently, and he admitted
that I had.
Well, off! Rendon and I resembling complacent larks.
Our happiest time!
Officers of our responsibility have never been killed.
Some Angels protect us.
I see them with wings enwrapping each of us upon the terrible battlefield.
While troopers walk past towards a blaze.
Labels: army, emotional, ethnic, loyalty, officer class, suicide mission, troopers
Monday, August 11, 2014
Chaos Mode
Figuring Her Out
-Sorry to miss the wedding, having just
returned from the same sewer where I've
twice before kept the nation safe for
Crony Capitalism. But, anyway, you caught
you a young one! Good for you!
-Not so. She's working her way off the hook.
-How so?
-Screaming divorce practically an hour after
the honeymoon.
-Weren’t you tender? Isn’t that Italian?
-I honored my heritage thusly. Plus some caveman
stuff to keep her interested.
-Anyway...shrug I, Period of Adjustment. For anybody.
-You know that saying the tumult and the shouting dies?
-No, having been mostly in the middle of it for the army.
-Looks like it's never gonna domestically also.
-A temporary impossible. Get her pregnant!
-Should I take away her shoes too?
-You mean you haven't?
Labels: army, barefoot and pregnant, honeymoon, marriage, relationship, war
Friday, June 20, 2014
What To Make of a Diminished War
Sergeant Karks took a pile from the copying machine.
GUIDELINES FOR REMAINING TROOPS
"Shit! Paper cut!"
Sergeant Dentster had been watching him, under the principle
that anyone working in the army should be witnessed by
another. "Very symbolic, Karkie! Last drop of blood shed in this
fuckin shitass country!"
“Shove that symbolism where the sun doesn't shine, and get
me a bandaid outa that top drawer.”
“Top-Drawer all right! Like the both of us.”
“As if anyone cared!”
Labels: Afghanistan, American Occupation, army, Iraq, morale, war
