Kill Team
By Sam Cha

1. “It was finally time to kill a haji”

“The soldiers were bored, shellshocked and angry”*
“There is a lot more to being in the infantry than shooting, but everything else is just boring […] Call of Duty and games like that are fun because they take out all the boring stuff and focus just on playtime”**

Bumfuck Kandahar time to kill
          smoked up played spades
played: Warhammer, Fallout, Call of Duty
          Call of Duty: Black Ops, Medal of Honor
played: Battlefield, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell
          played: America’s Army
jerked off in the porta-potties
          emptied porta-potties
burned porta-potty waste barrels
          jerked off well who else
is there to do in Ramrod Base
          what else? Ok: rail spike bump line.
Codeine Ambien phenergan,
          opium Vicodin trazodone,
hash Elavil Flexeril halodrol Percocet
          sniff shoot smoke
shoot swallow shoot
          moon dust everywhere
we are on planet frying pan
          we are fire
I mean we are on fire
          I mean what the fuck
I mean what are we doing
          I mean—hang on. Siren:

        ROCKET/MORTAR ATTACK                    GROUND ATTACK
                    face down                                                      take cover
                    on ground                                            “in appropriate attire”
                cover your ears                                       remain “IN PLACE”
                  two minutes                                       Arming State Green WU
                    then move
                      to bunker
           “in appropriate attire”
                 stay “INSIDE”

                           COMBINED ROCKET AND GROUND ATTACK
                                             response for “Ground Attack”

then it was time
it was finally
time it was final-
ly time to

*Boal, Mark. “The Kill Team.” “Rolling Stone” (March 27, 2011).
**reddit.com user “outlawsix,” in a comment posted on April 3, 2011

2. Awkward Roommate Conversation #117

—dude. america stopped by today.
            —yeah?
—yeah.
            —what for?
—said she was in the neighborhood. whatever the fuck that means.
            —oh.
—yeah. hear the doorbell ring, and i’m
thinking maybe it’s one of those deliveries
you know the ones i keep signing for when
you’re not home. so i buzz them in.
turns out to be america.
            —yeah?
—yeah. she was wearing that skirt.
            —the one with the shell casings?
—yeah.
            —jesus fucking christ.
—tell me about it. here’s your psycho ex in the hall
and i’m just out of the shower in my towel.
            —so what’d you do about it?
—what do you think?

3. KILL TEAM BREAKBEAT

            gonna get one gonna
get one gonna
get one now
            gonna get some get some
gonna get some come
            get get get some
come gonna come
            gonna gun
come get some
            get some

it’s a bad day
            it’s a bad bad day
it’s a bad day to be
            it’s a bad day
to be afghani
            it’s a bad bad day
to be a
            to be a tali-
            ban it’s a bad day
to fuck it’s bad
            it’s a bad day
to fuck with it’s
            a bad day to
fuck with us don’t
            fuck don’t fuck with
us bang bang day it’s
            a banging day
it’s a flashbang
            don’t fuck it’s a flash-
bang day flash thank
            god thank god it’s fri-
day thank god it’s
            frag thank frag thank god
frag god thank god
            good good god god
loves frags god loves
            america god
hates allah frag
            an ali baba
move your ass
            yalla-yalla