21

Here's something which happened a long time ago. My 21st birthday.

Read on to see how I celebrated it.


image by dsnake1


21


It was nine at night
us troopers, crouching on this dark hill
angry & bone chilled
watching
red tracers probing targets
darth vader lasers
crisscrossing
as the tank guns opened up
flinched & jerked in a frenzied dance
in the brief light of muzzle flashes
pouring 75mm shells into the butte
to explode in showers of mud,
the dark sky
illuminated now and then
by savage bursts of exploding mortar lights

and white flares arced
in graceful parabolas
fiery ribbons
for my birthday
as i turned twenty-one
on a dark raindrenched hill
angry & bone chilled,
the metal of the M16
cold on tired skin

no candles no cakes no golden keys
just a lighted cigarette passed around
comrades
a gulp of contraband beer
the impatient fingering of weapons
a wait for orders
then
the crunch of boots on wet gravel
as we trudged down the hill
our shadows gliding on trees
spooked by illum rounds..


27th November 1989
revised 15.02.06
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