Inside a Soviet-era tank
a Russian soldier’s trapped
his voice ratchets up from calm
to alarm dawning late
yet he remains obeisant shines it on
and reaches for the hand
of righteous plain persistence
whose tricked-out sister panic
gets there first to draw him down
below the waterline where final
words are garbled water-logged
how will his spirit ever know
that he was saved on a U.S. Army
training tape for voice interception
where newbies become veterans
still with him in the drink
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