Afghan Tryptych Part Three

What do you think when you kill a man?

Nothing, as the crosshairs move to the next target.

Nothing, that night when you’re sunk in your hole,

brain focussed for the prick of noise.

Later back at base, brain filled

with beer, The Stooges and The MC5 – Nothing.

Not next month, when your round comes

and you’re out of action for a time.

No.

Years later, when you’re kicking around

with your son, the thought: “What if he…?”

                                                    RMC

Afghan Tryptych Part Two

God is copper coated,

7.62 millimetres in diameter

and doesn’t care who gets elected

                                                      RMC

Afghan Tryptych Part One

The beauty of the bloom of the bursts unfold

at my request, budding and rolling into the sky

as if a new being had happened in the earth.

Until, focussed by Zeiss optics, I see the aftermath:

Shards of rock in the sky; a weapon un-manned.

                                                                 RMC

Overtaking Manoeuvre

                              Up we climbed, dipping and weaving,

                              the crack of my exhaust, the boom of my brothers

                              tailing into the bush, disturbing

                              the birdsong for a moment only:

                              Then the road dropped down from the range

                              like an unravelled piece of baling twine, and

                              as we rode it, the perfection of life’s strange

                              beauty settled upon us,

                              until we came to the particular curve,

                              (the one that dropped away and tightened),

                              my brother passed while I, slowing

                              but not wanting to be slow – fought the fear

                              in sight of flashing metal and trees.

                             RMC