a journal on the writer's role in society edited by esther altshul Helfgott Contributors are invited to address the question: What is the writer's responsibility to self & society? ____________________ |
Allison, Watch Behind My Eye by John Akins See me slip through coils of concertina wire, steal whiffs of glistened bone. I hump the steepest haunts to find a spurt of zing. I watch the edge of death that wound me through the smoke of war. A child lies in my arms. He is shrapnel gapped and torn. He scans my eye for promise. One burst -- I'm out of tears. Change magazines; stand, hook up, drive on. At a threshold to the dark night a goddess of war beckons. She cocks her lascivious eye, tastes her wanton lips. Her fingers tug at my buttons. The jungle sighs; I hear her purr. I slip through moist tangles, lay hard between banyan roots, press my face to her straining trigger. Rebels glide near our tryst. She rocks me in primal clutch. c2001 John Akins |
John Akins fought in Viet Nam as a combat marine, February 1968 - March 1969 ________________ |
