Green Revolver: Poems

Passing Through

69 Passing Through There was a threat, an action, a declaration of war. I slept through physics and woke up in snow. I looked at my white canvas uniform, painted helmet, rifle and whitewashed equipment when I got up. Others were dressed the same way, so I did what they did.We had fully surrounded this brick bungalow, when Colonel Flor told us to dig into the snow. We haven’t much time.The future of our families, our country,our place in the world,depends upon what we do here, he said. We must always refuse to negotiate,we must always strive for excellence. Everyone else hollered Essay ons except for me, because I was still waking up.All of us, though, seemed to see the upper hand wending its way into our lives. We broke our backs carving our trenches. We sank our bodies into the frozen clay. OurV-shaped trenches, Captain Parrott told us, gave us the best chance of survival. I’ll believe that shit when I see us get out of them, Carroll said after pounding in his aiming stakes. Our fire patterns interlocked within the contested field. If we kept from shooting each other, our fire would cover 70 the house. I looked at the portal glowing from out of the left window. Thar she blows! Munger said. I guess it’s never too late to plan your final expenses, I tacked on, finally getting into the thick of it.We did all we could, but then came the reckoning. Oddly shaped faces beamed out of the windows.The bulbs from the swinging chandelier were the first to go.The bed, dresser and kitchen table slid in and splintered into nil. Books fluttered like birds, then poofed into dust.The house shook off its foundation and zipped into naught. I hunkered down and curled up in my hole. The dirt wasn’t going anywhere. I felt my wet breath rise up my rifle and disperse.Where there are things that pull, there must be things that push. Not here for very long, and I was going to get pulled and pushed into somewhere else. I had smoked my cigarettes, kissed my babies goodbye, looked to welcoming my new home. ...