Hot Radio Girl

By Jillian Hahn

I overheard an infantry Lieutenant say
“She looks like my kid playing dress up”
As I lugged radio equipment
“Uniform too fucking long, and her rifle just about on the ground”
“She'd be a decent soldier if she could keep her mouth shut”

I heard a few other suggestions, that i won’t write here
Of other things i could do with my mouth
And how i looked without my gear
As they called it in Iraq
Men wanting me as “Queen for a year” 

“A Kansas 5, but a Baghdad 8”
I heard mopping the hall
“She does yoga in the morning,”
“That ass is coming along”

“There's no place in this country clean enough”
I tell the tanker who cornered me at chow
“Fine, you're a bitch anyway”
I get lectured later on standards and “how it looks”
Because he told his buddies 
I became queen, out by the burn pit

****

Jillian is an army veteran living in the Twin Cities area. She resides with her partner Sam and two dogs. As a signal support systems specialist in the army she spent her career fixing radios and adjacent systems. She deployed in 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She has a burgeoning career advocating for veteran mental health causes. This is her first time being published.