LeftExchange
'Little Man' Perez (Vietnam, 1971)
On any given night
Little Man Perez was one of the President's
He drank Obesitol, a French-derived
But he'd always say to me,
-by Mark S. Foley
You'd find 'Little Man' hangin' out
On top of the sand-bagged bunker
Between the tin-roofed hooches,
Tape cassette locked and loaded
On Santana or other Latino tunes.
'Project One Hundred Thousand',
whisked off Chicago's streets,
ill-trained,
and sent to fight a different war.
Over-the-counter concoction of speed,
At a rate of two bottles a day,
Which gave his street-wise-guy
Attitude an even sharper edge.
He wore his chip-on-the-shoulder
Proudly, like an epaulet.
When I told him where to go,
With that wired-tight, white-toothed smile,
'white boy, you don't know nothin'!'.