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This writing was accepted for publication in the 96 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book... “a Rural Story” Down in the Dirt (v126) (the Nov./Dec. 2014 Issue) You can also order this 6"x9" issue as a paperback book:

Order this writing in the book What Must be Done (a Down in the Dirt July - Dec. 2014 collection book)		get the 372 page July - Dec. 2014 Down in the Dirt magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Thirty More Dead in Afghanistan

M.C. Rydel

As soon as I can gain consciousness and sight,
I invoke the gods of chaos and light.
I watch fate drenched mortals attack
In the name of demi-gods, monsters, intrigues, lies,
All for a girl named Candy, who’s as fragile
As milk chocolate shaped like a girl.
I dance with free radicals at a campfire,
Make shadows like cave drawings on canyon walls,
Take hold, always just a coincidence, onto death,
Who’s just a dreadful click of an IED away.

We sleep in tents with dark-skinned girls,
Soldiers themselves in the midst of their journeys;
We spread purple flowers all over a river,
Watch them congregate next to fallen trees,
See one or two find a current to get around
Like souls escaping their here to get to there.
There is whatever paradise I can construct,
Hot as the Ganges in red silk and gold
Cold as speckled salmon startled rivers,
The water flows under the gates to the next life.

Yet, they are gone, and all of their plans are useless.
The little lies they needed day-to-day
Now are interned with their bones.
Our memories of them feel like a breeze
A guest book makes when you flip the pages
Of ten thousand ink-pressed signatures.
And, like a sculpture’s severed head in the sand,
The future is surely unfixable.
We fill every day’s most quiet needs
Like lotus-eaters, embracing the sweet scent
Of forgetfulness.

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