guns
When I was a child living in the inner city, my parents or my uncle would take us kids to an amusement park near our home. In the early days before tv or the super malls, these parks were the go-to spots of entertainment for the masses. Besides the usual ferris wheels, carousels, and bumper cars were the game stalls and joget dance halls. There were also the gun stalls where there was always a small crowd watching. Perhaps the sound of splintering glass attracts or they just liked to see a shooter fails.
image by dsnake1
guns
1962
i wanted to try
but i have no money
and the gun was probably
too heavy
so i just watched
as the stall lady
pulled the lever
of the air gun
handed the weapon
to a shooter
all the while
a lit cigarette
dangling in her mouth
that inch of ash
strangely not falling
and the shooter
was taking his time
undecided on his targets
beer bottles light bulbs
metal yellow ducks
up above a full moon
scattered its light
on the fairground
1972
i wanted to get this
over as soon as possible
the air was too hot
the steel helmet too heavy
so i just watched
the target in front of me
a wooden board with
a poster of a soldier
and as we shooters
lay prone in the dust
eyes peering through gun sights
the detail sergeant
on the bullhorn growled
the order to fire
and as i pulled back
the charging handle
of the M16
heard the bolt clicked
i was thinking of
beer bottles light bulbs
metal yellow ducks
up above a blazing sun
fired its rays
on the rifle range
written on 28/05/2012
minor edit 25/02/2021
******************
This poem was published here on this blog before. Little eyeballs. Here we go again.
Daryl Hall & John Oates - Screaming Through December
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021
guns
1962
i wanted to try
but i have no money
and the gun was probably
too heavy
so i just watched
as the stall lady
pulled the lever
of the air gun
handed the weapon
to a shooter
all the while
a lit cigarette
dangling in her mouth
that inch of ash
strangely not falling
and the shooter
was taking his time
undecided on his targets
beer bottles light bulbs
metal yellow ducks
up above a full moon
scattered its light
on the fairground
1972
i wanted to get this
over as soon as possible
the air was too hot
the steel helmet too heavy
so i just watched
the target in front of me
a wooden board with
a poster of a soldier
and as we shooters
lay prone in the dust
eyes peering through gun sights
the detail sergeant
on the bullhorn growled
the order to fire
and as i pulled back
the charging handle
of the M16
heard the bolt clicked
i was thinking of
beer bottles light bulbs
metal yellow ducks
up above a blazing sun
fired its rays
on the rifle range
written on 28/05/2012
minor edit 25/02/2021
******************
This poem was published here on this blog before. Little eyeballs. Here we go again.
Daryl Hall & John Oates - Screaming Through December
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021
Labels: 60's, 70's, landscape, military, national service, Singapore
posted by dsnake1 at 9:18 PM
14 Comments:
Happy Sunday Cheong Lee san
We do not have many of those game parks here in Trinidad and Tobago. They are quite a recent and few.
Much💜love
Thank you, Gillena!
ah, those game parks are in the past. Those sites are now shopping malls and condos. :(
Things looks so unrealistically cool when we are children, don't they? I can so relate with the second poem. I remember those terrible live fire drills and rifle qualification days. If they happened in the winter we froze, and if they happen in the summer we roasted. Our targets had the image of a bullseye. I wonder if we--American Marines--would react differently if our target showed the image of a person...
Magaly, thank you! It's always great talking to another ex-soldier. Our target is a wooden cutout of a soldier, we were told to aim at it's chest, but at a hundred meters, it's just a small dot. When we were children, we did not know how messed up the adult world is. :)
The circus, carnivals ... the magic of the lights, sounds, movement and the characters transfixed as a child .... even those shooting galleries. Now, the shooting galleries terrify. Your poetry is deep, thank you for sharing the old and the new.
I loved the contrast and the changes of time. Maybe it's time for GUN III 2021, and you can tell the story of the carnage they're bringing in modern day America.
There are so many things that we play with as kids without fully understanding all the implications. We hope that adulthood brings that understanding, a more nuanced perspective, and the wisdom to listen to others' lived experiences. And yet...
The present almost seems aware of the future, such a strange turn from bottles to men, but in both the awareness of seriousness. Loved this flip and the amusement park description. I grew up with one in my town.
The difference between a mere test of marksmanship and the realisation of what guns are really for! Well told.
I remember the shooting booths, not in malls but at fairs. But my parents had a horror of guns; we weren't even allowed to have toy ones (except water-pistols). I retain that well-inculcated horror to this day.
As a pre teen just after WW2 I too spent summer holdays by the seaside and spending saved up money at rifle ranges and the like at tourist attractions. Yet there were uncles that didn't return from the war and aunties whose lives had been shattered alone with her young children. Luckily five years of war had been an education to many children like me but at least my father returned home.
Helen,
Thank you!
Beverly,
i agree there should be some form of tighter gun control in modern day America.
Rommy,
that's the way and tragedy of how things can pan out. if only one can listen more...
Colleen,
Thank you!
these amusement parks provide much entertainment and relief at that time.
Rosemary,
yes, what guns are really for. to intimidate, maim or kill.
we have very strict gun control laws here.
Robin,
As a child during a world war is not easy. as you said, it can be an education in itself.
i wonder why people are so fascinated by firearms. perhaps our survival instincts?
I grew up with firearms and learned the practice of the four rules. Necessary tools on a farm. As for the carnivals, the sights always seemed off on those.
Joel, thank you!
yes, i heard that the sights of those carnival guns are always tampered with.
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