A Snippet of Yankee Conversation at the Siege of Veracruz
So what about these Mexican girls
makes them so drop-dead sexy,
one marine yells to another
during the bonfire heat of battle.
O nothing rocket-craft and spaceship passengers
won’t be tallying up, then jotting down
in a century two or three, my corporal,
and just pray to God the chicas hereabout
stay marshmallow-soft and caterpillar-hairy
and keep beckoning us to enter as we crawl forward
with hunks of fools gold goodies in our pockets.
William C. Blome writes poetry and short fiction. He lives wedged between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and he is a master’s degree graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. His work has previously seen the light of day in such fine little mags as Poetry London, PRISM International, In Between Hangovers, Fiction Southeast, Roanoke Review, and The California Quarterly.