Midnight Mass

Willy Field, ANTARCTICA - 1973

I remember the snow

crunching underfoot

as I made my way

staggering

leaning

sliding

up from the VXE6 squadron crew room,

through the glacial ice and up

into the midnight sun.

Blinking and disoriented

soft snowflakes whispered

onto the shoulders of my combat jacket

and ice froze into my beard as I stumbled

towards the building.

I had no idea

what the building was,

but it must have been new as it sat above the glacial ice.

I remember the skua's wheeling and diving

and me, three parts pissed

and looking for a friendly RC Chaplain.

I reached the building and it was empty

devoid of anything but a cross and several wooden pews.

I picked the front pew,

pulled on my bear claws for extra warmth.

then crashed.

The priest woke me about 2355,

he was freshly shaven and kind.

I blinked back the cracklin' rose

and wild turkey, said my confession and

sat holding my hangover with as much dignity

as a soldier can muster.

I don't remember much about the service,

I think we spoke Latin and I prayed for my children

and a wife, so very far away. I took communion.

I remember blinking into the midnight sun

when the mass ended

and we crunched back into the ice and snow and skua gulls.

©Mke Subritzky

20 December 2002