New Poetry by Ben White: “Cleaning the M60 – 39 Years and January 26, 1984”

39 Years

The death
Of a soldier
Was an accident,
A waste –
PUT_CCCCCCA shame,
So the anniversary
Is nothing to celebrate –
PUT_CCCCCCOr forget

January 26, 1984

Back on the continent
At the 1st and 51st Infantry –
A battalion that doesn’t exist anymore –
The Cold War was fighting a strange peace
With weapons and tension
Wanting to release a dimension
PUT_CCCCCCOf battle prepared,
PUT_CCCCCCTrained for,
PUT_CCCCCCAnd ultimately expected
While volunteers selected
Stood ready in the West
And along the borders
PUT_CCCCCCAwaiting orders to mobilize
When one cold January,
Thursday morning
Soldiers had to realize
The power of 7.62 mm ammo
Tumbling into the chest
PUT_CCCCCCOf a brother in the band
With manslaughter unplanned
And wounds giving the medics
An ambulance to ride in
PUT_CCCCCCUntil the doctors
PUT_CCCCCCAt the Krankenhaus
Opened up the chest
And showed them what
One M60 round
PUT_CCCCCCCan do
To flesh,
Bone, and what
A few minutes ago
Had been functioning,
PUT_CCCCCCDistinguishable organs.