Looking For Love

A cutaway view of a Bouncing Betty as the German bounding S-Mine was called.

Wiki says:

"A bounding mine is an anti-personnel mine designed to be used in open areas. When tripped, a small propelling charge launches the body of the mine 3-4 feet (0.9-1.2 metres) into the air, where the main charge detonates and sprays fragmentation at roughly waist height.

"The original World War II German S-mine has been widely influential. American infantry in World War II named the German S-mine the Bouncing Betty. Other countries that have employed bounding mines in war include the United States of America, Soviet Union, and Vietnam. China and Italy have also produced them. Some American mines designed for this purpose utilised a standard 60 mm high explosive (HE) mortar round with an improvised time delay fuse which is activated by the propelling charge.

"Bounding mines are more expensive than typical anti-personnel blast mines, and they can be thought too expensive for scatterable designs. Because they are designed to be buried, they are often utilized for command-detonated ambushes, but tripwire operation is common as well. If timing is right and the mines plentiful then they can be used much like blast mines, with a time delay in the fusing to allow those who trip the mine to pass beyond into the kill zone.

"By design, bounding mines contain a large amount of steel, which makes them comparatively easy to detect with metal detectors. However, it is often the case that minimum metal mines have also been planted in the same minefield, which complicates the demining process."

Looking For Love

I crave the lovely
pain you set like a bounding
mine beneath the road,
how it springs waist high
and blows my limbs off my heart
which bounces on down
the remnant road bed
cratered and crazed with some shards
of glassy sight left
to me as my heart
stutters trying to speak out
while gushing my joy.

‎October ‎1, ‎2013 10:37 PM

This one might be a mite twisted. But then again one might consider how many minefields are left behind after conflicts and how many children go home maimed after playing in the wrong field. Fathers of children set the mines. Fathers and children and their mothers live with the after effects. Children love their fathers and mothers. This poem might be dead straight true. The human race can be monstrous. No. This poem is not at all twisted. It is we who are twisted.

Angelina Jolie is a Trustee of the Halo Trust, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization engaged in the removal of hazardous debris of war, and land mines are classed among this debris. So is Cindy McCain. If you are interested in this charity *click here*