Last year I found a way
To double my salary
It was simple enough
To join the US Army
An 88 ASVAB
Could have earned me safety
Just another desk job
That would hardly suit me
"Let us try"
I'm an Active 12B
"Essayons", let us try
To be all we can be
And then as soon as I was in
We declared war on Iran
But having trained in the winter
I was eager for the sands
So go on, take my pin
And drop me on the map
Over ¾the mortality--
Infantry and a half
And they walked me 'round the base
Singing all sorts of things
About mothers without children
About how the widows weep
They sing "he's a US soldier
And that's all he'll ever be"
Because that soldier never came home
And he never heard us sing
"Let us try"
I'm an Active 12B
"Essayons", let us try
To be all we can be
And if I died at war
Would that be such an awful thing?
Five hundred extra thousand
For a man that doesn't know me
And people don't roll eyes
At that kind of legacy
And even if I went home
Well I don't know where that'd be
Some celebrate the beauty
of knights, or infantry,
or billowing flotillas
at battle on the sea.
Warfare has its glory,
but I place far above
these military splendors
the one thing that you love.
For proof of this contention
examine history:
we all remember Helen,
who left her family,
her child, and royal husband,
to take a stranger's hand:
her beauty had no equal,
but bowed to love's command.
As love then is the power
that none can disobey,
so too my thoughts must follow
my darling far away:
the sparkle of her laughter
would give me greater joy
than all the bronze-clad heroes
who fought it out at Troy
-- from the Greek
----------------------------------------------------
In savage streets it’s hand to hand
once shrapnel rips the air that’s damned,
no sin of ego in this land.
Baptismal bloodshed echoes
through rust and rebar ghettoes.
There’s bullet swarms and rocket rain
but infantry must hit terrain,
forget I’m sane and rupture veins
with melee-trench-knife flashing,
the bane of peace doves, slashing.
I wear their red of death and drive
my blade abuzz in hellish hive
to stay alive! Yes stay alive!
The apathy of killing,
and twisting morals willing.
My heartbeat kept, a victory,
it pounds just like artillery
but prized, despite the misery.
A witness to destruction
and holy soul’s corruption
and christened by the selfishness
of presidents with negligence,
we soldiers march with evilness.
The narcissistic leaders,
the preachers and the breeders
of rhythmic spates in drumbeat hate
unfurl their nation flags and fate
in bloodlust war… while heads of state
stay combat clean in bunkers.
I witness gurgling utters
your last and bloody gasp for “mama”.
I grasp with greed my breath in chest.
Thought ricochets inside my skull;
I’m still alive! I'm still alive! I'm still alive . . .
Laws over user
Response in violation
I'ma violation of code?
Next sentence no jury
Immediately I lost control
Living is leaving without doors
Pre eminent domain the framers
Constitution
An earth in form
Assembled infantry
Order duty
Follow document
Intercept
Floored
Rent a right
Ambition dollar
Our articulate article
Misses print
Who sided with before, controversial
Higher orders, adjunct military professor of law
Stilled the fix of formatted text
The preferential abandon as treatment
Treat men
War with a battlefield of dying poor
My published records of ink in light
Stopped by outsiders having wishes of rewrite French crime
Penny contorts interest
Depriving satisfaction
Kreb a bus
Now undefine the cost of that writers right
In this absence if article documenting times
How is one literal
The milatary cant place you? Whats wrong with it? Its
Understaffed to the umteenth bed.' If youre from the country its even worse.' I beleive theres more chance if
Ypu have four legs.? Your head on two necks praps thats
Cause your easier fed.? Or if you are purple? Or think a
Certain way like perpendicular periperal could wr say? If
You can't take a joke.' Then its straight up; as far as i see
To command all the rubber ducks, that shall form the infantry.'
A man whose eyes seem distant and cold
takes me on a journey through history
with thoughts of wonder and interest
leaving me with more questions than answers
about his life, his dreams
there's a profound sadness in his picture
and a sense of pride
he's dressed in his Civil War uniform
from the Massachusetts 13th infantry
standing in front of a cabin with a porch
and a couple of rocking chairs
off to his right is a well with its bucket
a hound dog lays at his feet
stones in the ground placed like a sidewalk
lead up to his boots
below the picture sits a creaky old rocking chair
where I sit to rock back and forth
while thinking about my great-grandfather
who survived Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg
and other battles is why I am here
The infantry stands with their boots on the ground
The muskets will fire and the trumpets will sound
The cavalries charge in the heat of the battle
The cannons will roar and the sabers will rattle
The whole thing will be fought in the dust, rain, and mud
But the payment for that is the stain of our blood
When our enemies fall then our standard will rise
Thus a nation for all is the ultimate prize
At five feet, five and a hundred and ten
The Marines said, “sorry, too small of a man.”
Yet he became greatest of World War men,
The Army’s David to Goliath stands.
An orphan at the early age of sixteen,
Enlisted at nineteen then off to war.
As part of the 15th infantry team,
Lived four hundred days of front-line gore.
Audie earned honors for courage and bravery,
Every medal of valor, his story.
Through the horrors of war so unsavory;
The most decorated soldier in (U.S.) history.
He embodies the greatest generation,
Yet today, we are so bereft.
Are there any of Audie's persuasion
To redeem what valor is left?
OLD AND NEW 2 : BOARDROOM
Jackal preyed on dimpled dolls
smiling gold on slender wrist
nosing down a slippery path
scowling schoolboy promoted
beyond his mediocre castle
Mammals sat on polished teak
coiffed moustaches, tonged peaks
feeding unclipped grapevines
old words and wounds
eating raisin muffins
Falcon scribbled notes
watching eyes serving
newly ordained masters
legalese from a previous
age flowed from fine shifting
fingers in a cage
Overgrown thyroid sat there
his infantry lost in teeming
townships blaring transistors
interrogators of another time
peeped at a polished tiger-eye
on his seat
Minds like noisy tools
drilled atomic holes in
the boardroom table
beaded headdresses falling
from fat oozing french seams
They will learn Christmas carols
in mint retirement homes
when the table losses its legs
©GhairoDanielsPoetry1997
The cavalry charged, leading the way
The infantry advanced, joining the fray
As for me, I was up to a little deviltry
Donned my goggles ~ battled virtual reality
Birth of a nation birth of a child
Celebration tears from soldier proud
He can be her she can be the
All tears of love in the infantry
My cousin fought in Vietnam
His name is as hard as his job then
As a medic he saw many sons
And daughters at their bloody end
The blue tears he has for years
Are all streaming inside
In war he fought for those tears
Aftermath he stays high to not cry
What made my soldier cry so raw
Is a land that his ancestors were enslaved
And yet he fought for all
Despite injustice for the black man today.
7/2/2022
Written for TEARS OF A VALIANT SOLDIER CONTEST
Sponsor Faraz Ajmal
wandering around
streets of Massillon
snow now falling down
walking faster so feet don't freeze
attitude has fallen ten degrees
shoulda left sooner
in better humor
escape the boomers
should never have come down to this
strolling along in pants which are pissed
was born in this town
but life beat me down
liquor, drugs breakdowns
struggling with things misunderstood
has me homeless and up to no good
once was infantry
got the best of me
serving this country
wasn't ready for what I saw
no matter who calls it Shock and Awe
walking faster so feet don't freeze
attitude has fallen ten degrees
should never have come down to this
strolling along in pants which are pissed
ready yesterday
wine got in my way
gotta move, can't stay
struggling with things misunderstood
has me homeless and up to no good
wasn't ready for what I saw
no matter who calls it Shock and Awe
once a normal boy in this town
now this old town don't want me around
this town don’t want me around
The life of our gallantries
Risky is my everyday devotion
Serving for the nation
Chanting my military incantation
Sacrifice my life and image to my nation
Sparking to burn for others
To Safeguard mothers and fathers
Fighting for sisters and brothers
Forgetting like we don't have closer's
You spend time with child and wife
I spend mine with my gun and knife
Your hustle for a colourful life
I struggle for your safety life
Many died in this world of infantry
While some died in line of duty
Stored in refrigerators of mutuary
My name constantly bear fallen military
All those are not dearly and scary
Remembering those days of mockery
I shout to ease boredom and loneliness
But you called it cheating and foolishness
It's neither drugs nor ridiculousness
To me it's my way not a craziness
We always remained loyal to order
Following the lead of our commander
I feel proud in camour and even bolder
We are family regardless of who is older
©®Ibrahim's_wisdom
TASMANIAN DEVILS
The house next door
had flames in the windows
We watched from the street as
the firemen arrived, four rigs responding,
Engine Company 5 – The Tasmanian Devils
Engines and ladders, axes and hoses, abundant
testosterone surrounded and entered, laid into
that fire like an infantry platoon doing necessary
work through the hedgerows of France in the
summer of ‘44
“Cute little girl!” said the tall young man as
the water and smoke later sizzled
in the char
Twelve years later, at a different address,
three rigs responding, Tasmanian Devils and a
gasoline smell in the storm sewer system, same
tough young men, little action this time, a band
of paratroopers with no enemy in sight
The tall fire lieutenant remembered my face
but not my new wife and proffered the question
to set memory right
“How’s your little girl?” said the voice of
command with the steely gray eyes
I said “She died a year later!” and he looked through
us both, reached for the catalogue of the suffering he
had seen, shifted his gaze and called out to his men,
mounted his rig and tightened his face, surprised
once again at the number of ways that
a fireman finds death!
Literally feather weight
Though given me bad dream,
Anxiety... Malaria
Insanity to team...
He hunts to suck my blood
Keeps me up all night,
Feel like I’m at war
With a thing now out of sight.
He hasn’t any infantry and
Always flies alone,
Buzzing in my ear
With a mini-microphone.
Silence comes- turn off the light
Climb back into bed,
It attacks me with velocity and
Viciously my head.
Now lights are on again he’s gone
Wish the wall he’s plastered,
The very thing I’d love to ding
That little evil bastard !
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