in the military, he slammed his tray down, splattering mashed potatoes everywhere, and
in the military, there was fire and
in the military, there was death and it came in tens, and
in the military, I rotted and
in the military, I got pneumonia and my drill instructor wouldn’t let me go to sick call because
in the military, they teach you not to need sleep or parents or hope or sanity or sex, except we all still wanted sex, and
in the military, they screwed up and took my X-ray twice, back to back, had me leave the room and then sent me right back in and when I came out, they said, “You didn’t just take his X-ray again, did you?” and they did, and
in the military, I watched a dog chewing on a dead hand and
in the military, I kissed no one and
in the military, I punched myself in the face in front of a mirror on Easter when I was drunk off Long Island Ice Teas when I was stationed on an island where the Brit Marine in the barracks across from mine drank himself to death and I remember the military police tape around his room, how it kept swinging in the wind like a ghost was sitting on it and
in the military, we had no chance and
in the military, there was one drowning and
in the military, there were three people who caught on fire and I watched them through binoculars and
in the military, there were no witches and
in the military, a bunkmate got sent to the brig and when he came out I asked what it was like and he said, “You ever been to jail?” and I said, “No,” and he said, “Keep it like that” and
in the military, it was extremely difficult to masturbate and
in the military, they made us fold underwear and T-shirts and pants and beds and people and our brains and the dead and
in the military, a kid hung himself and
in the military, another kid put his gun in his mouth and they were children and
in the military, I didn’t see much blood because death was more violent than that and
in the military, the pilot took the plane down by the water so that we almost hit a wave because he didn’t care what happened to any of us and we loved it
Ron Riekki’s books include My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Apprentice House Press), Posttraumatic (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle), and U.P. (Ghost Road Press). Riekki co-edited Undocumented (Michigan State University Press) and The Many Lives of The Evil Dead (McFarland), and edited The Many Lives of It (McFarland), And Here (MSU Press), Here (MSU Press, Independent Publisher Book Award), and The Way North (Wayne State University Press, Michigan Notable Book).