86[1]
Honouring the memory of Nicola Goddard
and the fallen and wounded PPCL II soldiers in Afghanistan.
She’s got her head
up giving us the
heads up
high in the hatch
as we move,
return fire.
Her radio
goes dead, my
canon jams.
I move
to the machine
gun covering
the distance
traveled by
the RPG
its shrapnel taking out
the back of our
Sunray’s head.
Nothing left
to synthesize situation
reports, just
her ZAP
number
to phone in.
[1] This the story as told in news reports and in two different prose non-fiction books published after the killing of Nicola Goddard. Master Corporal Maclean comments; “Touchy subject, very well known event. Nicola is revered by the 2PPCLI in Shilo and this will be a sensitive subject.” I’m not sure what do about something that is published as non-fiction and then becomes the source of the poem.