THE WALL OF FACES

Irony, poems, monuments are not a cure.
Merely futile expressions of Honor.
The only cur for a Veteran is to never be one.
Songs say Cpl Funkhouser's Spirit lives in the Black
Granit Wall, Panel 10E, Row 13.
Touch Carl's name with your fingertips
What dose your mind feel?
Perhaps his Father's rage undiminished 30 years later.
Certainly not the rancid corpse of a twenty two year old Soldier in an Asian jungle.

What did Vietnam take?
Better still what did it leave?
I only know who no longer am I
Not who I am.
The cool clear picture I had of myself,
My world was rendered asunder.

I was impotent as a human being
Crouched next to Carl's body.
I was a soldier, killer of and companion to the dead.
Duty, Honor will starve your soul.
My life became action not emotions.
Sort Hell later.

Are you dead, one who is fortunate.
Dead soldiers give Memorial Day Meaning
Heaven has nothing to do with it.
There are no atheist in a firefight
Yet who lives the words of Jesus.