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FIRST JUMP
By Richard McKay, Army
Writing Type: Poem
The young paratrooper prepared to leap,
his guts were a quiver and his feet were asleep.
He shuffled to the door that was open wide,
and thought of the others who had jumped and died.
He gazed out upon the empty air,
and his heart was filled with a great despair.
He didn't look down and he didn't look up,
but still he puked in his vomit cup.
The red light was on, less than a minute to go,
How he got into this is what he wanted to know.
What crazy, irrational, foolhardy quirk
had ever persuaded him to enter this work?
While racking his brain to answer this riddle,
he knew in his pants he was starting to piddle.
Upon hearing the Sergeant holler, '""Get ready!""
he grabbed for his knees to keep them more steady.
Was it glory, or fame, or just for the loot
that he got into this game of descending by chute?
He thought at this point the question was moot,
and was helped out the door with the aid of a boot!
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