Figment of Reality
I guess everyone needs to express their existential unease at least once. This short story has been in process for at least 16 years now. Although it is informed by reality, keep in mind that it is as much poetry as fact. I had a few very real, very vivid scenes to start with, but it still took the process of writing to tell me what the story was actually about.
The photo, by an anonymous VQ-1 airman looking west from the barracks next to mine at Da Nang Air Base, shows an illumination shell (center), flares shot by individual Marines, a Cobra gunship in action (far left), and possibly a diving F-100 Super Sabre (upper right). It was nights like these that inspired this story. There were many of them in late April and early May of 1970.
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