non erotic poem
Ok gang rip away
One can learn much about the War in Vietnam with four simple statements and when and who made the statements.
1964-there is a long dark period before us but we will emerge victorious. President Lyndon Johnson
1967-There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
1972-Will the last grunt to leave Nam, please turn out the light at the end of the tunnel?
An unknown grunt in the Central Highlands on Vietnam on pulling out of a fire base.
!975-We have reached the end of the tunnel and there is no light. News anchor Walter Cronkite as the last helicopter lifted off from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon
The cry of a father
My boy, he is almost eight now, asked me about the war
And I knew not what to tell him, I do not want him to think
Of war as heroic or brave because it is not, it is life and death, mostly by plain luck
I want him to hate war as I hate it and I never want him to see it
I don’t want him to hear the roar of big guns at night until He needs the noise
to sleep and silence scares him into total awakeness
I don’t want him to see the pain on his friends faces as they die around him
or to lay behind a dead man to save his own life
He should never meet a stranger who hates him enough to kill him
or who fears him that much
And he should never have to move into a village after the bombs have fallen
And see the blackened burned bodies of the small children
Lying beside the burned mommies or to hear the so-called lucky ones
crying for mommies that will never hear or see again
To carry that child through the brush to the Med-Evac chopper feeling her
skin peeling off onto his hands
Hearing the screams for the weight of her body against my hands
is more than the small child can bear
GOD, DAMN YOU. ARE YOU THERE????? I do not know anymore, but if you are
Please spare my boy
I did my duty, I fought, I killed and I cried, let him not have to do that,
I beg you ,please spare him
Spare him the things I saw and did, spare him the pain that never goes away. the dreams that never stop
Never let him see the horror of war, the hungry people willing to sell their bodies,
their sisters, or their mommies just to eat
Kill him first, it will be easier for him for the memories are bad, waking up in
the middle of the night hearing screams that never end
GOD? That little girl? Did she make it? I never found out. I asked a lot of people.
Did she make it?
I still hear the screams as she struggled to get out of my hands, the horrible
screams of pain as the burnt flesh stuck to my hands
I can see the eyes as she looked at me, I can smell her even now so many years
later, and I still gag and vomit
The pain searing my brain, my heart, my soul, If I live a million years I will always
see her eyes and that pain
GOD? Are you listening to me? Never let my son do that. spare him.
GOD? DAMN YOU! ARE YOU THERE? No, you never were, were you?
You turned away from your own son.
So why can I not turn away from my son.
Ok gang rip away
One can learn much about the War in Vietnam with four simple statements and when and who made the statements.
1964-there is a long dark period before us but we will emerge victorious. President Lyndon Johnson
1967-There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
1972-Will the last grunt to leave Nam, please turn out the light at the end of the tunnel?
An unknown grunt in the Central Highlands on Vietnam on pulling out of a fire base.
!975-We have reached the end of the tunnel and there is no light. News anchor Walter Cronkite as the last helicopter lifted off from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon
The cry of a father
My boy, he is almost eight now, asked me about the war
And I knew not what to tell him, I do not want him to think
Of war as heroic or brave because it is not, it is life and death, mostly by plain luck
I want him to hate war as I hate it and I never want him to see it
I don’t want him to hear the roar of big guns at night until He needs the noise
to sleep and silence scares him into total awakeness
I don’t want him to see the pain on his friends faces as they die around him
or to lay behind a dead man to save his own life
He should never meet a stranger who hates him enough to kill him
or who fears him that much
And he should never have to move into a village after the bombs have fallen
And see the blackened burned bodies of the small children
Lying beside the burned mommies or to hear the so-called lucky ones
crying for mommies that will never hear or see again
To carry that child through the brush to the Med-Evac chopper feeling her
skin peeling off onto his hands
Hearing the screams for the weight of her body against my hands
is more than the small child can bear
GOD, DAMN YOU. ARE YOU THERE????? I do not know anymore, but if you are
Please spare my boy
I did my duty, I fought, I killed and I cried, let him not have to do that,
I beg you ,please spare him
Spare him the things I saw and did, spare him the pain that never goes away. the dreams that never stop
Never let him see the horror of war, the hungry people willing to sell their bodies,
their sisters, or their mommies just to eat
Kill him first, it will be easier for him for the memories are bad, waking up in
the middle of the night hearing screams that never end
GOD? That little girl? Did she make it? I never found out. I asked a lot of people.
Did she make it?
I still hear the screams as she struggled to get out of my hands, the horrible
screams of pain as the burnt flesh stuck to my hands
I can see the eyes as she looked at me, I can smell her even now so many years
later, and I still gag and vomit
The pain searing my brain, my heart, my soul, If I live a million years I will always
see her eyes and that pain
GOD? Are you listening to me? Never let my son do that. spare him.
GOD? DAMN YOU! ARE YOU THERE? No, you never were, were you?
You turned away from your own son.
So why can I not turn away from my son.
