"Klaipeda and Polanga"
Anthony Roberts
Welcome to the former USSR
The first business to open shop here was Phillip Morris
Marlboros were the equivalent of .50 a pack in 1998
Siauliai airbase you could still see the bullet holes in the walls the
Lithuanian eviction notice served via AKs and PKMs, and DsHKAs
Vacate immediately
A Hasty retreat
While still within the concrete echoed the shrouded whispers of the
Banshee’s scream nuclear tipped SS-4 Sandals were stored here
where they gleamed under fluorescent lights their positioning a
strategic oversight that Glasnost let slip by
-accidental radiation exposure-
The tumor’s length of 32mm indicates that it is a type 1 slow
growing meningioma that has been on the brain for quite some
time
Almost 30 years long enough to see through to the end of a
military career we all left that base affected and the Army was kind
enough to consider it 100% service connected
Was my sanity neglected? in the years that followed did I meekly
seek to ease the pain of the brain with the numbing Starka vodka
swallow
Starka vodka is brown like the water of the inner harbor where
bodies are found it’s filtered through paper which gives it its color
and causes Russophilia when taken in large quantities
Anthony Roberts is a veteran of Baltimore and Afghanistan. He currently lives in New Jersey in a home with beautiful views and interlocking fields of fire.
He is the author of Pigtown and The Clearing Barrel.