Operation Happy
Haworth Hodgkinson
Five hundred boys and girls,
excited at the prospect of adventure,
gather to watch the slide show.
The briefing sergeant shows them
barren desert mountainlands
and grim-faced highlanders
peering from fold upon fold
of protection from the sandstorms.
Your mission, he tells the boys and girls,
is to use whatever means you have
at your disposal (within reason)
to force these gloomy natives to smile.
When ricochets of laughter can be heard
echoing round the mountains
we will bring you home as heroes,
read solemn lists of names to a tolling of bells
and express our sincerest gratitude
to your proud families.
Written 2009
Published in No One: Poems for Peace, 2009
(Malfranteaux Concepts)
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