Babylon

In the cradle of

Mesopotamia Babylon to Baghdad

Ancient ruins between rivers
flows the Tigris and Euphrates
all you've heard

your whole life stirred by Hades

but to see it here now

with your own eyes

for the first time

at the banks of
a distant history
filling the footsteps
of an ancient future

authoring by my own hand
passages of a living encyclopedia.

Home on the Range

In honor of today's repeal of the don't ask, don't tell law, Special Forces scheduled some trigger time at the gun range. Here is the picture - a dozen US Special Forces soldier, Green Berets - trained in non-conventional warfare, survival techniques,  interrogation, and four Iraqi Generals - one of them a 3-star who served previously under the regime of Saddam Hussein and then there's me wearing a suit and tie - all standing in a line firing automatic M-16s, M-4s, MP-6 sub-machine guns, Beretas Glok-9s, 12-gauges, all united by the universal urge to do some "man shit".... 

So lunch time comes and I have to get back to class - so we left together - 3 of us in an armored Suburban and head out...and on the way there was this unusual checkpoint - and so we pull up - and this Iraqi military orders us to stop - so we stop - then he tells us to open the doors - the driver (SF Sargent - the lowest man on the totem pole) says NO - there are maybe 100 Iraqi guys all over the place - some with automatic weapons - several humvees mounted with machine guns...the guy motions again for us to open the door and be searched...the driver says NO - the Iraqi calls over more guys - the guys come over and they start ordering us out of the car...the driver refuses...they grab onto the outside door handle and try to open it...the drivers presses the gas and advances forward. The Iraqi guys come jumping in the way and draw their weapons so the driver stops...and picks up his cell phone...just then another SUV pulls up behind us and stops. There is some commotion and then everyone lowers their weapons. The SUV pulls up beside us and there sits the 3-star general riding shot-gun. We salute him, he salutes us back, he motions for us to move forward, the soldiers move to the side, and we continue on our way. 

just another day in Baghdad....         

LT COL ABBAS

Lt. Colonel Abbas unfolds his wire-framed glasses from their tiny case and sets them lightly upon the bridge of his nose. With the addition of this simple accessory he feels himself quite suddenly transformed into a college lecturer. He is a large, monolithic man, and patrols the classroom with broad, heavy paces. As if one of the pillars of Stonehenge had sprouted mighty legs and simply walked off. He keeps his hands clasped behind him, locked at the fingers and with each step his towering torso catapults forward into an exaggerated bow, hips hinged, head dipping forward,  like a mechanical bobbing bird. With each step the torso bobs forward dragged by the ballast of a mighty forehead. He pauses, reflects, adjusts his glasses, and looking down his nose he pauses over a savory bit of knowledge which none in his classroom could ever hope to divine. He was all capital letters.