kia

kia

a thousand feet in the air
and the bottom was tearing up.

someone yelled, "fifties!"
and the new man stared at me,
gray as death.

I looked past him,
out the window.

when we tilted
a round
came through the floor
and smashed him
across the chest.

(a hot landing zone, somewhere near the Laotian border)

(a tactic used in the mountains by the NVA, when they could, was to allow the first of the Chinooks to land, and then pour heavy fire into the others, turning the LZ "hot," and forcing them to land somewhere else, thus cutting off the Marines on the ground. we were in the second chopper and were taking .50 caliber fire right through the floor of the bird. to this day I cannot understand why we didn't crash.)