Tonight's Poet Corner: Sonnet Solstice #202
The Seventeen Sergeants
by Belinda Roddie
The seventeen sergeants all lined up with
the seventeen lieutenants in two rows,
so that the major general could spit
and spew his mantras in a vicious flow
that never seemed to end. They were dismissed
and congregated in the dark mess hall
to eat their bowls of beans and drink the piss-
colored beer in gray cans. But after all
the men and women were done with their meals,
the seventeenth lieutenant brought a jug
of raspberry wine out. Two more played reels
on fiddles, and the seventeenth sarge shrugged
and decided to dance. It was a grand
time for thirty-four soldiers to command.
by Belinda Roddie
The seventeen sergeants all lined up with
the seventeen lieutenants in two rows,
so that the major general could spit
and spew his mantras in a vicious flow
that never seemed to end. They were dismissed
and congregated in the dark mess hall
to eat their bowls of beans and drink the piss-
colored beer in gray cans. But after all
the men and women were done with their meals,
the seventeenth lieutenant brought a jug
of raspberry wine out. Two more played reels
on fiddles, and the seventeenth sarge shrugged
and decided to dance. It was a grand
time for thirty-four soldiers to command.
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