Vietnam

A man walks along the Vietnam memorial and remembers how it was...

I walked along the wall today

The wall with all the names

I walked along the wall today

As it began to rain

 

All left boys

Laughing and joking

All returned men

Sputtering and choking

 

They said there was jungle

Dotted by rice patties

…Jungles of corpses

Dotted by blood patties

 

Mortar shells rule the nights

I shiver and shake

My brothers die beside me

Their bodies trembling yet

 

Napalm the children

Napalm the old

Napalm the napalm

Napalming my soul

 

Marches into mine fields

Cows to the slaughterhouse

Blood and tears flying

Chopped by a powdered butcher

 

Fighting with sticks and stones

Hunting with camo and flame

Fattened on war yet hungered

Eating the spoils for starving

 

Every step through a tomb

Every breath consuming death

Every second shrouded in smoke

Every wound shaving thin a life

 

The rain my concubine

The gun my teddy bear

The vines my savior

The bullets my damnation

 

I walked along the wall today

My tears conjuring the rain

I walked along the wall today

Until I found my name

Reviews

[Wildecat]

This really brought back memories, being as I am a Vietnam Veteran, such a waste that war. So many dead for nothing. And here we are in Iraq another useless war. Nice write.