Thursday, January 14, 2010

revision

revision (for robert kroetsch, with apologies to laurie anderson)

during the winter of 1942, the third reich attempted a secret airborne attack on parts of southern manitoba as a dry run for a possible american invasion. the aerodynamics of parachutes are still not totally understood. in the early 1940s, the chutes often didn't open at all. still, the german high command insisted, and one hundred of the luftwaffe's finest troops were dropped over boissevain. the majority of the chutes failed to open. clipped of their wings, the solders fell like gargoyles, punching holes in the prairie snow over fifteen feet deep: a strange planting. the farmers calmly got out their snowshoes and shotguns, walked into the fields and fired down the
holes.

-Darren Weshler
section from "Free Radicals"

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