Voices From The Wall

There's 58000 of them

I was hit by mortar rounds
I could hear them coming
I was pinned by rifle fire
Not much sense in running

I bled out on a Medevac
In pain and terrified
I didn't feel a bit heroic
just before I died

I was burned by Napalm
Dropped by a Navy plane
My flesh split and melted
Lit up like propane

I was ripped apart by shrapnel
Hit by machine gun fire
Blown away by booby traps
Tripped off by hidden wire

I went down in a shot up Huey
Missiles blew me from the sky
A sniper's bullet took me
With a lethal predator eye

I came home to an angry nation
Accusing me of genocide
I crawled into a whiskey bottle
and committed suicide

I fought against aggression 
By communist boogeymen
A war I gave my life to
I didn't matter in the end

Author's Note

Written quickly with little editing. Criticism is appreciated

Reviews

[olla]

I was privileged to have one of the traveling walls displayed in the field across the street from where I live.. I can not express the kaleidoscope of emotion I felt.. it was here for a week and I could not stay away.. I would wake up in the middle of the night and have to get up and go.. it was powerful.. like your poem..

[Baby Ricochet]

The wall gets inside us like no other memorial can. Thank you for the review olla.

[Samuel Dickens]

That war shaped my generation. Three good buddies I grew up with went and didn't come back. In San Francisco, everyone was cold and wouldn't speak to us. In Jacksonville, Florida, they threw eggs and rocks at us. Nice, huh?

[Baby Ricochet]

The reception the Nam guys got when they came home was a travesty and the media coverage sure as hell didn't help. Civilians can't stomach what war really is.

[Mr Dunne Poetry]

Wow, this is amazing. You have spoken for many with this piece. 10/10 Thanks for sharing bro :)

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you sir

[Mr Dunne Poetry]

Always a pleasure :)

[Chris]

You did good kid... you did good.

[Baby Ricochet]

Semper Fi

[Chris]

Semper Fi...

[Mary Christabel George]

You have voiced the pain of all the soldiers who have suffered the situation. You have done a g8 job here. If at all the world politics understood the agony there wouldn't be war at first place and peace would prevail everywhere. I respect your work here.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Mary

[Mary Christabel George]

Welcome Baby

[Will]

Damn, BR, when you're on you're on! I loved this. The different characters and stories melting together to form that one image of a Vietnam veteran. An uncle of mine was in Vietnam, and he didn't come back the same. He can't listen to fireworks without having a fit, and is mostly just confining himself to his house. We think it's PTSD, but that wasnt being diagnosed until well after Vietnam, and he won't take help now. It's a sad story the way those 58,000 went down, and how those men who came home were treated by their own country, not getting a penny of the benefits they deserved and being treated as pariahs by an anti-war society. You've pegged this group of men as best as I've ever seen it done, and it is beautifully executed. Amazing work, BR.

[Baby Ricochet]

No one comes back from war the same. Thank you for your review Will.

[RachelReaper]

I think this has a very good point. I hate it when people criticize those who went off to war. And there are so many things that could have happened to them, they should be appreciative.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thanks for stopping by Rachel.

[TL Boehm]

I may or may not have told you...My dad was retired USAF but never saw combat. However, my step grandpa was a glider pilot in Korea, my grandpa served in WWII, my father in law was POW in WWII (bombadier shot down over Germany) several uncles served, other family killed in action....I am incredibly proud of all of them and all who serve...this poem is achingly real. Well penned.

[Emily B]

i walk the fields where men died in 1862 very often, i see their faces sometimes as i sit around a campfire

your write is pure and honest and needed

thank you

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Emily

[Emily B]

my daughter wants to go into the army, she seems to have her mind set on it, she may end up anywhere

[Baby Ricochet]

She's making a good decision. I don't regret my service with the Corps. I would do it again in a second.

[Emily B]

she's stubborn, wants to be a combat engineer

[Jack...]

Horrific description and sad ending. This need no editing in my eyes, it is this country that needs editing. Very nice my friend.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Jack