MARINES NEWS AND INFO

This poem was written by a Vietnam vet, 1st Lt Antonio Vince De Capello, USMC.

An Afrit Sang

...shut yer eyes, minkie.
it ain't no use
you can let them fall
but

an afrit follows.

...heeled by fear
haring you to make
hell on earth
none too sparingly.

Daring the spittle to flow
from the breast to cleave the brain
no dice, no dice
all bets are off...

see? an afrit follows.

man! you're all spinal
beating chicken, hatching tick-bombs
getting easy aint it preacher?
getting with it, father-of-two?

Alarm's an alarming wake
sound off, three four
dip the stick
hit the floor

cannon one-two, short.
war's on the cinq senses
obliterating my premier man's
touch, my hand's were not mine to shake

Mortar romances target zero
like woman and me when we say hello
like romeo with juliet nihilo
tragedy a-baste with spongiform lust

the afrit gets some.

growing and dead before long
feeding on decay
making gravy from fat swollen bodied corpses
making happy on life's little surprises

the rifle sputs, a trifling
tattoo, that soldier's breath stops
short -----mercy's hollow
ring a bell instead
---accompaniment for death's suite

We be the chorus....
Warm up the band.

and the afrit sings pastoral.