Best Viet Nam Poems

He dreams day dreams of horror.
He could be anywhere,
But in his mind he’s instantly
Back inside that village there.
He hears those jungle sounds
Again and again and again,
Just one of that platoon of
Tired and frightened men.

He smells again that smell;
Napalm that kisses and clings,
Turning living feeling bodies
Into...

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For asking please forgive us Father
But were you with us here today?
In this place that must be hell.
If it is not, then we cannot tell.

We lost so many good friends here today.
It is so bad that we no longer know the way.
We have seen so...

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There are other things besides the years                                      ...

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VIETNAM REMEMBRANCE
                                           ...

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monkey
playful friend
from Viet Nam
sent by loving soldier
60's...

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(Machine gun bullets, or is that rain?
    Mud spackled riv'lets down the drain.)

        Did you ever think that the truth was funny?
        Same old joke for any Money.
...

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Fifty years ago it began.
War in a distant, foreign land.
For a decade or more men gallantly served.
From devotion to duty they never swerved.

From every walk of life they came,
Trying a ruthless enemy to tame.
Leaving home, family, jobs and friend
They served where their beloved country did...

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© Ben Burton 5/30/2016

"Paw-paw," the young man asked, "how come you never talk about the war
The one Dad told me you fought in, in 1964?"
The gray-haired man replied, through dejection in his eyes
"Some things are better left unsaid, except of those who bled and died
Which...

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There was a war sometime ago where mem were ordered young and old,
  to fight the battle keep us safe but for them no escape.
The war went on and the battle raged soldiers dieing everyday,
 so many men and boys too side by side...

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steamy jungle
  dense undergrowth
viny overgrowth
  thickets abound --
monkeys chatter
  foretelling doom
snakes hissing
  eerie sirens --
bamboo sticks
  in the ground
spiked with poison
  puncture unsure feet...
all to protect
  an unseen enemy
raining bullets down 
  from nowhere   ...

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Watching the lushness pass below me
Rivers lazy, paddies verdant
Crater ringlets there to show me
Wanton murder too often fervent
  
Young men dying, futures slaughtered
An idiotic, absurd endeavor
Unborn sons and unborn daughters
Our loss, their loss, gone forever

Who remembers, who considers
Those whose dreams that ended there?
Souls for...

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What did I do when I was a kid?
    Loved life, had fun that’s what I did.
Enjoyed what I had, and had what I enjoyed.
    Never to be bothered seldom ever annoyed.
Stood tall, felt proud, proud of this country,...

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A pretty girl
Posting a letter
In November

Sending it to young soldier
The wind sent her skirts swirling
Expectations were in the air

No one would ever know
How much this act of kindness would mean
To a soldier in Viet Nam on his last day...

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Troops confidently led to Ong Thanh Stream
United States Companies B and D.
Watched as air strikes troubled the VC team.
Later found seventeen killed enemy.

Silver Star presented to Welch that day.
Captain Nguyen Van Lam set up ambush.
First Platoon reported trees were a sway.
A claymore mine exploded in...

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1969 was a sad year for those aware of Viet Nam
We were seventeen and eighteen
It was in the news but what did it have to do with us?
Our love was intense
He wore white jeans that made me wild
He knew it, so he wore them often
Driving...

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