“They’re trying to build a prison,
they’re trying to build a prison”
Leo whispered into my ear as we walked
dilapidated downtown Denton sidewalks
to the next dingy dive
“What?” I asked
That’s what System of a Down whispers
in “Prison Song,” which you mentioned you heard
in the bathroom
of the previous bar.
Drugs are now our global policy.
The veterans are on the good drugs, finally.
I knew this, it was just that he whispered
in my bad ear
the one that a machine gun
bludgeoned like a bongo drum,
which Leo joked that I should pound
while he turns poetic words
into spoken sound
We mostly spoke of the things
that saved us-
Literature,
Love,
Writing poetry,
Psychedelics of all sorts,
Time-
a long time…
Freedom,
Wanderlust.
We told jokes as often as we told truths.
I read “Lest We Forget”
a year before I enlisted
and he was already out longer
than I’d go on to serve.
Here we are now,
friends
from opposite ends
of a two decade war.
He figured out by 40
how to not have to work,
and I am trying to figure the same at 32.
We both wear jeans, albeit
black chucks and gator boots
are quite different styles,
“Tequilalimesoda”
is nothing at all like Coors Lite,
but Miller High Life is.
And so the night ends with two writers
finishing each other’s sentences
about why we signed up
for war
in the first place,
and they’re still trying to build a prison.
Mason Rodrigue is a former USMC machine gunner. Listen to his most recent interview on the Savage Wonder podcast here.
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Support Mason here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Catch our interview with Neville Johnson this week on the Savage Wonder Podcast.
Our 2023 Parlor season is out! Get your tickets to our first staged reading, Speed-The-Plow, by David Mamet here.
Voting for the next round in the Hudson Valley Reader’s Poll is live! You all were amazing at voting us through the first round and we would be so honored to make it through the next of Hudson Valley’s Best. Vote for VetRep at this link!
We are currently offering multiple dates for our online and in-person Playwriting for Veterans classes, and our Acting for Beginners class is now being offered weekly every Saturday from 10am-12pm. Registration details can be found here.
Savage WonderGround is coming back to Alexandria, VA on April 13th. Get all the details and snag your tickets here.