Michael Kalavik Poet Lyric

Cold War Clientele - Benguet Province, August, 1978

My thumbs pressed on the trigger.
The M-2 bucked its load.
I squinted down the barrel
And watched his head explode.
An early morning ambush,
A steaming Luzon hell,
For Ferdi and Imelda,
Our Cold War clientele.

The mission was generic:
Suppress the NPA*. 			
It didn't really matter
Just who got in the way.
I carried out my orders
And did what I was told,
But Christ, the kid I wasted
Was only twelve years old.        

*New People’s Army – a Maoist insurgency

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L Milton Hankins September 11, 2021 at 9:27 AM Michael, one never gets over this kind of experience, does one? So well expressed. In a single instant your whole psyche was upended, rearranged, affected for a lifetime. Excellent writing, again.