Saturday, May 23, 2009

37 Years Later

He died
at the age of 56,
combat injuries
caused lifelong pain
and premature death.
The war is not over.
People die every day
from wounds
received in Vietnam.
A casualty of war,
37 years later.
He plugged away living
on borrowed time.
Wounds and exposure to Agent Orange
caught up with him.
He knew the time had come,
laid to rest, as he wished,
among fellow veterans.
Vietnam veterans were short-changed
They went as teenagers
and were forced to become men.
Along with that came
incredible emotional scars.
Nobody will ever convince the family
he wasn’t a casualty of war.
It’s all there in his medical records.
He gave his life the day he was wounded,
and his soul was taken 37 years later.

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