André Naffis-Sahely

GEORGE S. PATTON (1885–1945)

SOLDIER 

“I urinate in the washbasin and wash in the urinal
because I have forgotten what they look like…
The nearest railroad is twenty-one miles away,
all officers and men will live in floored tents;

I wish to God that we would start killing somebody,
somewhere, soon. My dear friend Caroline,
I would be unpatriotic if I aided anyone
in bringing comfort to our country’s enemies,

the Japanese in California. I have shot
one or more jackrabbits every day
that I’ve been here just to keep
my hand in for Rommel. The Mojave

is a wasteland and there is room to burn…
Sitting on a tank watching the show is fatuous—
killing wins wars. Who is as good as I am?
I know of no one… I’m a hell of a guy…”

ANDRÉ NAFFIS-SAHELY is the author of the collection The Promised Land: Poems from Itinerant Life (Penguin) and the editor of The Heart of a Stranger: An Anthology of Exile Literature (Pushkin Press). His most recent translation, Aulò! Aulò! Aulò! by Ribka Sibhatu (PTC), was awarded a PEN Translates! grant from English PEN.