Home
HOME
The family is very excited
happy to see me come home
they know I have changed,
but they have changed as well.
Their eyes are worried wary,
their expressions oddly strained
here the uncertainty lingers,
behind their welcoming smiles.
Their war plays on TV nightly
they want life to be as it was
they want to see their other son
the familiar son who left home.
Those who already came home
had no chance to be successful;
the growing war protest attitude
have made jobs impossible to find.
Home coming joy fades quickly,
reclaiming my place not possible,
most people avoid the stain of contact;
many others remain openly hostile
Survival means staying invisible
all that has happened locked in,
no one from home willing to talk,
childhood friends now turn away.
The painful memories come by day,
but the pain is worse at night,
agony grows beyond endurance
and continues to grow relentlessly.
This hidden hurt happens in silence
the mind tortured ready to break;
home the new Hell replacing Vietnam,
home will never be home, never again.
Copyright © Jw Nugent | Year Posted 2018
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