Poem 521

Based on a story I saw in a documentary about the war Borges referred to as ’two bald men fighting over a comb’ …

… the merciless tone works to bury the bitter lead …

One Of The Lighter Moments Of The War

There was this Argentinian soldier
              in the Falklands
dug in in the Atlantic cold
waiting for the British to come
and all of a sudden they came and one
         of the first things they did
         was shoot him
so he jumped up straight away in his trench
shouting
                  that's it I'm leaving
he gave his gun
to one of his friends ammunition
to another
                    climbed out and walked off
                    up the hill

the British who took a dim view
of sulking lobbed
      a phosphorus grenade at him
      and he caught fire
and changed his mind
and decided to come back again
but his friends 
                             weren't pleased to see him
burning like a dry tree lighting up
      their position
they waved him off hysterically shouting
the Argentinian for
                                       get away you bastard
                                       get away

he wavers there
                                 the look on his face
shot 
burning
about to burst
                            into tears