"Carnival"

by Mason Rodrigue

Parades like patrols
convoy through the avenues of New Orleans
dodging deep potholes in cracked streets
like IED craters.

Crowds of people,
packed like refugees into neutral grounds,
wave from tailgates 
like shanty towns of tents and chairs.

They fight for ten cent beads
like third world children fight 
for water and MRE snacks 
tossed from turrets.

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Mason Rodrigue is a former USMC machine gunner. Listen to his most recent interview on the Savage Wonder podcast here.

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Sponsored by iHeartRadio, Believe Love Respect and their new BLR Cider, WPDH Vets That Rock, Legoland, Chronogram, Wallkill Savings and Loan, Red Clover Coffee, Havok Journal and so many more - the Savage Wonder Festival of veterans in the arts is coming on May 29! Have you gotten your tickets yet?

Want the best date night possible this Saturday night? Drinks, dessert, a hilarious live performance, professional actors, an intimate unforgettable space, pay-what-you-can tickets…it simply does not get better than this. So come on out and join us at our Parlor on Quaker Avenue for our staged reading of David Ives’s All in the Timing.

And please don’t plan on showing up the day of the performance - it’s only 16 seats, folks, we’re always sold out!

Stardust and Gunsmoke are a pair of former Marines. Both in New England, one is a teacher, the other is a state trooper. Follow them here.

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