Nursing the Iraqis.

• Author: Foote, Frederick
• Position: Poem

Nursing the Iraqis Here's how I learned their tongue: "Sadeeq! Sagheer ousissiya (small operation)"--he goggled at me-- "La alam! La alam! (No pain)"--took the edge off the fear--we had no translators--infallible DoD. That came from a Berlitz book, a nightly task, after the wounds, the unrelenting burns had had their run ... We must have seemed to be mad. Doctors chanting on rounds, nurses warbling, corpsmen speaking tongues, never since Babel such an overflow of sounds. One...