Purple Daze Read Online Free Page B

sweet
and fitting to die for one’s country. But in
a modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting
in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good
reason.”
    Â 
    Ms. Hawes likes it because Hemingway served
in World War I, so he knows what he’s talking
about.
    Â 
    I like it because the room is suddenly quiet
as a drawn-in breath.

Phil
    Dear Cheryl,
    Â 
    5th Week in Hell
    Â 
    Thanks, doll
for the pics of roses—
I can almost smell them.
    Â 
    I’m lying on an army cot at my outpost.
Every breath, I suck in a battalion of bugs.
Damn insects. It’s raining and they decided
to come in here where it’s dry.
    Â 
    Last night I about got plugged writing
a letter using this same flashlight.
    Â 
    A sniper saw it.
    Â 
    That would be a helluva way to sign off—
with a big glob of guts.
    Â 
    Your friend, Phil
    Â 
    P.S. I got a nasty paper cut licking
the flap of Nancy’s envelope.
Only one letter so far.
What’s up?

Ziggy
    Mrs. St. Johns faints in Home Economics when she opens the refrigerator and sees her Oscar Mayer wearing rubbers.
    Â 
    I mean, grow up!

Cheryl
    Mom says I’m too young to shave my legs,
so I bought Nair. Industrial cream in a jar.
    Â 
    I’m not supposed to pluck my eyebrows either,
so I use her Lady Schick on the stubble between
my brows.
    Â 
    Ziggy says they’re going to grow back thicker—
that if I keep shaving up there I’ll have a mustache
between my eyes for the prom.

Napalm B
    Simple bathtub chemistry concoction:
    Â 
    gasoline , noun. A colorless, liquid mixture of hydrocarbons, which evaporates and burns easily.
    Â 
    benzene , noun. A colorless liquid that vaporizes and is set on fire easily.
    Â 
    polystyrene , noun. A colorless plastic used for insulation and in making toys, household appliances, luggage, and reeds for musical instruments.
    Â 
    The Pentagon requests bids to manufacture Napalm from 17 U.S. companies. A small company in Michigan called Dow Chemical gets the contract. Before then, Dow was best known as the maker of Saran Wrap.
    Â 
    One 200-liter cylinder hitting the ground causes mass destruction. Flames roll in a circle approximately 250 feet in diameter. The heat inside the zone ranges from 1,800–3,600°F. Within the zone, there are no survivors.
    Â 
    Outside the zone, jellied gasoline clings to human skin, melting flesh. Reports document civilians being boiled to death in rivers heated by Napalm.

Don
    Dad got cracked with a nightstick
during the protest. Seventeen stitches
in his scalp.
    Â 
    Mom calls from the emergency room
ticked because they weren’t hauled off
to jail with their friends.
    Â 
    The doctor signed her petition, though,
so not all is lost.
    Â 
    Mom fixes Dad up on the couch
with an ice pack, puts on Dylan,
“Like A Rolling Stone.”
    Â 
    Out come the brownies.

Phil
    Dear Cheryl,
    Â 
    Let me tell you about a weapon
with a killing punch.
    Â 
    Howitzer: 109 mm. Weight: 27 tons.
Type of shells: White phosphorus.
Chemical. High explosive. Illumination.
    Â 
    Two weeks before I got here, a battery
killed 900 of the 1600 VC hit. Yesterday
two companies were sent to take a hill.
500 strong. Only 67 walked back.
    Â 
    Took the damn hill though.
    Â 
    Stay cool—Phil
    Â 
    P.S. I used to hate Disneyland.
Now it’s all I think about.

Nancy
    No one understands why I
volunteer for extra shifts at work.
Why I signed up for night class:
Psych 101.
    Â 
    Why I wasted tips and weekends
painting my bedroom salmon ,
then bought a gallon of raven ,
because all that fleshy-pink
left me too vulnerable.
    Â 
    Not much time to write.
Too much time to think
because shrapnel rockets
through my brain, ricocheting
off work, school, bone:
    Â 
    Is God going to spare P.F.C. Phillip
C. Rose because I want Him to?

Cheryl
    Ziggy’s been depressed since
Mickey enlisted in the Navy:
    SEE THE WORLD &
DITCH YOUR DAD
    She sobs into the phone,
“What if he