New poetry by Larry K. peace poet

just another massacre

 

February 1, 1968

we were securing 15s (engineers)

on the road to the Oasis

as they cleared it of mines

there was radio report of rocket sites near us

so we went to take a look

 

we spotted some movement

in the bushes off the trail

and surrounded

a bunch of  Yards, men and women

(French named mountain people now

but fishers before the Chinese came south

over a thousand years ago)

moving through the area

some of the men had canteens and suspicious webbing belts

we were searching them when a call came in

a chopper had small arms ground contact

about 600 meters north of us

 

we left the Montagnards we were searching

and went to investigate

using our APCs to knock down trees and brush

(stoned we pictured ourselves in some movie

leaping like a large cat over the land)

we cut an LZ for a reactionary squad

(Aero-rifle platoon from the O)

we had opened up with our .50 caliber machine guns

(bullets longer than my middle finger

in some martial fuck you)

although there was a question

of whether we had been fired upon

 

when the shit was over

we had captured 100 and killed 65

(later adjustment of body count said

we had killed 110 and captured 140-

139 of whom absolutely confirmed VC/NVA)

 

in the midst of this shooting shit

I threw a track from my APC

the driver gets to fix such breakdowns

I kept waiting to get shot

although I didn’t hear any rounds near me

I killed some by running over them

which caused the track to come off

(the smell and the body parts confirmed this)

 

February 2, 1968

we swept the area again

 

February 4, 1968

we went back with bulldozers to bury

the bodies.

1968

 

I lost 1968

somewhere in the hot and moist jungles

of the central highlands of Vietnam

when I wasn’t paying attention

 

  1. Edgar came out of his closet

long enough to murder and jail

young  black leaders

who caused his scrotum to shrivel

afraid that someone might learn that he was

passing as white himself

 

his FBI assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee

on the second floor balcony of room 306 at the Lorraine Motel

so that a black messiah would not lead to the mountain top

after civil rights christianity unexpectedly demanded justice

 

rebellions in 125 American cities put down

by 69,000 US military troops with 46 citizens killed

 

details of My Lai massacre by US troops

published in French language magazine Sud Vietnam en Lutte

 

Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for President

with strong anti-Vietnam War platform

 

the CIA killed Robert Kennedy on television

at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles

 

LBJ allowed Nixon to commit treason

for the good of the 4.378 billion people

who were waiting to die

or for the revolution to be televised

 

LBJ announces on television that he

“will neither seek, nor accept” nomination for President

 

16 year old Bobby Hutton the first and the youngest

Black Panther Party Member to be murdered

by the Oakland Police Department

 

American medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos

raised their fists during the National Anthem

at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City

 

Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon

 

American Indian Movement formed in Minneapolis

to address issues of Indian sovereignty

 

the Democratic Party elite was laid bare

the streets of Chicago saw riots and bloodshed

involving protesters, police and bystanders

 

when I returned to the world in 1969

it was a whole different thing

Afghanistan haiku

snow on the mountain

 

blood on the children in the snow

all sides claim victory

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