UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/DAVID BATES


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY

DAVID BATES

Unpurple Heart

I.
you take your rifle to the shitter
& you sleep with its sling
wrapped around the leg of your cot
and when you walk it lays
perfectly
in each hand

           you are in a dairy mart
           in ohio
           and you don't know what to do
           with your hands

you shave each morning
to your reflection in a compact disc
a disposable razor that
pulls the whiskers by the roots
and when you miss a few
your sergeant makes you shave
every hour
for 24 hours

           you look in the mirror
           of your new apartment
           and forget
           how to grow a beard

you haven't had a drink
since the last time you took a drink
so you get drunk in italy
on the way home

           and haven't been sober since

           your girlfriend
           drinks
           all the time now

II.
you drove the HUMMWV
to get ice
the day before you left
the day after the brief
on improvised
explosive devices and
nothing happened

           dustin has a hole in his leg
           you can fit a salt shaker in

eddie M bled out

           you highlight his name
           in the VFW magazine
           and tear out the page
           and put it in a frame

           he was an asshole

you smoked 3 packs a day &
jerked off to maxim magazine

           you smoke 2 packs a day
           and jerk off to AOL

your mother used to put your old clothes
in a paper sack by the door

phil shot a man on a motorcycle
and b-co beat up a retarded boy on a raid
and you accosted a housewife on an airplane
too drunk after Chicago after
Jack Blades called you a hero in the airport bar

III.
           last night you went into the aid station
           pulled your hand from your belly
           watched a rope of blood smack the floor
           and asked for a medic

last night you ran madly away
from an incoming mortar
that turned in mid-air to chase you

last night you really did
           get it in that alley

once
you made a grown man shave
every hour
for 24 hours

           you drink beer at 10am
           because you work the early shift
           at Target

you volunteered for the last patrol
convinced you wanted
just
one
kill

David Bates currently resides in Austin, TX and is the
co-founder and editor of My Favorite Bullet
(www.myfavoritebullet.com). His work has appeared in
Spent Meat, Underground Voices, Thunder Sandwich, and
Zygote In My Coffee. He hosts the Ruta Maya Poetry
Open Mic every Tuesday (6-9pm) and will buy a beer for
any traveling poet who cares to read.