At that moment there was a brigade in northern-Iraq

Three battalions+ in Mosul

A squadron+ in Tal’Afar

One platoon in sector, one on standby back at FOB Sykes

And us.

Among the ‘us’, my twenty-one strong

Strategically scattered about

Tonight at this OP, shacked-up in a dusty old room

In the southeast corner of the old Ottoman Castle

Were us three.

Us three alone in the dead of night

Awash in the green glow from our night vision

The secretly-restless city beneath night’s black curtain

The AIF will stir.

But until they do it is just use three

Alone together

With our thoughts, a story or two

And the ghosts of Tal’Afar.