"The Grisly Truth"
By Ben Fortier
A vicious fight ensues in a city halfway around the World.
A dilapidated building houses a gang of insurgents,
Taking on a team of heavily armed Marines.
Close quarters combat.
Rifles going off inches from their targets.
The fighters are racked with concussions.
Ears ringing. Adrenaline spiking. Hands shaking.
Engulfed by the fog of war, an American shoots his friend
In the back of the head.
A grenade goes off simultaneously
And the dead body shields his compatriots
From the thousands of pieces of searing hot shrapnel.
A lull in the fight allows the men to drag the fallen
Out of the kill zone.
There is no time for sorrow. The enemy is still in proximity.
Another several minutes are spent
Attempting to flush the insurgents
Out into the street
To be gunned down by a machine gun in a fixed position.
Finally, the rifles fall silent.
No one can understand how it came to this point.
Everyone is still in a state of shock,
Coated in a thin layer of dirt, sweat, and gore.
Lighters flick and cigarettes singe.
What lie could they possibly concoct
To make it seem like they didn’t kill one of their own?
Native Rhode Islander and proclaimed Renaissance Man, Iraq veteran Benjamin Fortier is a multi-talented writer, musician, and technology geek. He is currently in school (again) studying computer networking and cybersecurity. His day job is in service to his rescue dog, Princess Peppa Pig the American Bully. He is the author of Stones of the Wooded Valley and The Silent Whispers of Omens. This poem was taken from his latest book PHANTOMS, covering his deployment to Iraq in '06-'07.
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a good piece