"When I Stepped Off the Plane"
By Tom Carnes
When I stepped off the plane
On that quaint little island
Off the coast of Haiti
To invade it, to save it,
To kill it to peace
Hit with the heat, the steam of a sauna
Met with voodoo drums, mosquitoes and sweltering heat at all hours
When I stepped off the plane
On that icy runway
In Bosnia, on Thanksgiving Day
To hunt war criminals, to eat turkey in a tent
It was so cold, so frozen, mines where ever you stepped
I walked through a mine field once, just to see
When I stepped off the plane
That searing heat hit me in the face
The sand of Iraq, of Ancient Babylon
Grinding into my lips, gritting my teeth
Squinting my eyes, the cacophony of gun shots, the smell
Of Cordite, fire and death flooding me,
Sniper Alley, Camp Slayer, Route Irish
Rocket attack Friday’s and Man love Thursdays
We don’t shoot to hurt, but to kill
Even our own
When I stepped off the plane
That smell: death, dirt, decay
A smoky hazy sun, burning, but not over done
That was Kandahar- that was Afghanistan
Until the night came and then the 155s spoke to the Taliban
They yelled and screamed, kept me up at night in my diesel-soaked tent,
Generators humming, no space to sit.
Death cut close, missed me on the road, but got a man I knew
I went to his memorial service, I heard the boom
When I stepped off the plane
I realize now, I was only a piece of meat in some state of process
Frozen, thawed, cooked, seared, and finally when gnawed to the bone.
When I stepped off the plane
I was finally home
Thomas "Tom" J. Carnes III (he/him), a La Vernia, Texas resident, serves as a dedicated Criminal Justice Teacher at Madison High School in San Antonio, where he imparts valuable knowledge to high school students and mentors youth. With a rich and varied military background, he was commissioned as an officer in the Army National Guard and deployed to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Thomas found inspiration for his poetic endeavors, channeling his transformative experiences into creative expression.
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