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The Chin Comm Hand Grenade

I showed my master sergeant
what an NVA soldier threw at me,
and he told me it was just
another dud Chin Comm grenade.

He said 75% of them fail.
The Chinese make them
and supply NVA regulars
with them. Can you imagine
fighting with such a lousy product?

Then he takes the grenade,
removes three pins, shakes
the powder on the floor,
and throws the blasting cap
against the wall where
it makes a loud bang.

I'm like shitting in my pants
while he's doing all this.
He just puts it back together,
hands it to me, and tells me
I have a souvenir from the war.
Then he trots off like it was nothing.

I packed it in a large tape recorder
and sent it home. They didn't check
in those days like they do today.
Look, here's a picture of it.
I forgot about it and just found
it again in a pile of my old junk.

 

 

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Jimmy Pappas served for the Air Force during the Vietnam War as an English language instructor training South Vietnamese soldiers. Jimmy received a BA in English from Bridgewater State University and an MA in English literature from Rivier University. He is a retired teacher whose poems have been published in many journals, including Rattle, Shot Glass Journal, Piker Press, Off the Coast, Boston Literary Magazine, The Ghazal Page, Hospital Drive, and War, Literature and the Arts. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. He is a recent finalist in the Rattle 2017 Poetry Contest.