Author Information
WARRING PARTS OF SPEECH
WARRING PARTS OF SPEECH
At eighteen I learned the verbs of death;
At Nam it was “Waste the gooks”
Its aim was declension of the flesh
Codes of death enwrapped my tongue;
The pres said “nail the coonskin to the wall”
I learnt the tongue that twists words of thought.
After that it was an alphabet soup of death;
WMD, MAD, and a euphemistic unknown tongue:
Pre-dawn lateral insertions for invasions.
My world was christened in a stream of mother’s
Milk given to buy tow missles and sidewinders.
And wars that allowed for friendly fire.
The verbs got replaced by adjectives such as
Surgical strikes and intelligent bombs which
Made the killing fields seem more antiseptic.
Next the nouns gave a more definitive description;
Insurgents, caliphs, mullahs, and fanatics. I oftened
Wondered what names they had for us.
