The Serb Dog

The Serb Dog by Vee Bdosa the Doylestown Poet There was a bunch of soldiers standing around watching a house burn and somebody said "Was that somebody screaming, did you hear somebody scream?" "Shut up idiot," said the lieutenant. "You don't want the Serbs to have anything when they get here do you?" He was from Dodge City and some of the other guys called him Cowboy. Most of them had joined the unit in Naples and this was their first assignment in what used to be Yugoslavia. Now it was Hell. They could hear faint gunshots coming from over the hill and everyone knew time was running out. Around the corner a bunch of people was being herded out of town but not everyone wanted to leave. They could hear some of the older peoples voices pleading not to be put on a bus, but nobody knew what else to do. The children only cried and some of the soldiers tried not to think about the children crying. Finally they heard the bus door slam shut and the sound of the engine as it roared into movement then gradually the sound disappeared behind the distant gunfire. "I heard they signed today," said one of the soldiers. "Did you hear, lieutenant, about them signing a ceasefire?" "Let them sign," replied the lieutenant "I will sign, too. Torch that house over there. Who cares about another cease fire?" "Why didn't you join the Croats, Cowboy? What ever made a nicefellow like you sign on with us cut throats?" Everybody snickered but Cowboy got over being irritated by their remarks the first week. "They didn't offer enough money," he snapped. Suddenly a dog came running down the road and one of the soldiers said "Get that damned dog!" Everybody started shooting at the same time and the dog started running and jumping and yapping all at the same time then disappeared behind a house. "That's one lucky dog!" somebody said. A captain came running up and said "Why were you guys shooting at that dog?" One of the soldeirs said "It was a Serb dog." Somebody else said "It was in heat!" "Well don't shoot no more dogs," said the captain. Then the dog stuck its head out and a shot came from across the road, shattering the stone building right next to the dogs head. The dog let out a yelp and started running down the road, away from the soldiers. "Look at that dog run!" shouted the captain. "Don't anybody shoot! I like that dog! Run Dog! Run Dog! Don't let them shoot you!" Just then a volley of gunfire echoed from behind the buldings and bullets could be seen hitting the ground all around the running dog, then some bullets struck the dog and it fell over without a sound. Some other soldiers came around from behind the buildings across the street from where the dog had been and they were laughing. "That was my dog!" yelled the captain to the other soldiers. "That was your dog?" asked one of the men. "Yes, I said so!" repled the captain. "Didn't I just tell you it was my dog?" "You just killed our dog!" snapped the lieutenant. "We thought it was a Serb dog," the soldier said. "How could we tell it was your dog?" "Well, you be careful about shooting dogs from now on!" snapped the lieutenant. "Good dogs are hard to find around here." "That dog was rabid!" laughed one of the soldiers who shot the dog. "That dog was in heat!" laughed a soldier in the first group. "That dog is dead!" said another guy. Everybody started laughing. "Get back to torching those houses," said the captain. Suddenly they heard the dog yelping and when they looked down the road they saw it running again. Everybody started screaming and shooting at once and the dog disappeared into a bunch of bushes just as some bullets hit the dirt all around it. "That's the luckiest damned dog I ever saw!" said the captain. "Guess it wasn't a Serb dog after all," laughed the lieutenant. "Guess not," said a soldier. "No Serb dog could be that lucky." © ron wilson aka vee bdosa the doylestown poet