no way it can be much farther

lingering departure
by Matt Freire

Reflection in mud puddles
get rippled by zombie bodies
Heavy bags full of mobile war stations
Trudge along the wadi
Sun pasturing high burning off the fog
Mirage, images spatter the distance
Heat waved yetis just cart wheeled by
You’re leaking again the mental doc mutters
And I gulp down 115 degree water
You can make it the mental doc whispered
There’s no way it can be much farther
Few more clicks
clocked on the bottom of my soles
As these zombish machines continues to roll
My boots act like cooking pots
The slow roast of feet stir and scream
And I scuttle forward with the herd
My lips are like salt rocks
And my tongue is that of a cow’s
And I lick my cracked trenches
And I move and move
Dreaming of smoothies and the
California Ocean
My leakage starts to magnify
And momentary trails of salt dots
Line my just walked path
To be instantly evaporated
To instantly add to the humidity

Casually the zombies turn into heat casualties
A zombie to my right slips
MEDIC! Disrupts the silences
And the wobbling zombies make way
And the few that save lives our as gods
The I.V. drips and the teams move in position
Gun teams’ defilade
Tac sets set como with the rear and surroundings
Kiowa death birds flutter over head waiting, enticing
It’s still early, they might get the worm
Split the static comms’ interdict
Squads disperse in wedge
Formations appear in the distance
And I get my second wind
My corps becomes alive
As I visual document the synchronized assault
The pack moves in
Muscle memory takes effect
Cordon placed
The search swoops in with no resistance
Hajji tents inspected
Beds up turned
To find another miss direction
From yet another sham hajji informant

And we wait
For word on a bird or another objective
And few numbers switch on my watch
And my shadow decides he likes it on my other side
And at this point my job becomes selective
I hand out candy as afghan children grab my camera and try to steal my pen
I walk around making small talk with anyone who will listen
The medic tells me to drink water because I’m leaking profusely
I’m a soldier and the past 5 and a half years that’s all I know
But today I feel like a potato dropped in boiling oil
And my skin is blistering and cracking
At only 24 I feel really old
But I can’t figure out how to stop
So I drink water like I’m told
And I mold my melted power bar into a goat
And it entertains me as I wander around
I sit here
Stand there
Find shade as sweat pours off my face
Waiting on x-fill


Photos:
Top: A Afghan child sands next to a donkey in Sabari Afghanistan on Jul. 28, 2009. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Matthew Freire / RELEASED)

Bottom: U.S. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, hands an Afghan girl a bottle of water during an air assault mission to search the Khost province of Afghanistan during Operation Champion Sword on Jul. 29, 2009. Operation Champion Sword is a joint operation involving Afghanistan National Security Forces and International Security Assistance Forces focused on specific militant targets and safe havens within Sabari and Terezai Districts of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Matthew Freire / RELEASED )