Salute
Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Lundy’s Lane,
Monterey, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Shiloh,
Antietam, St. Mihiel, Belleau Woods,
D-Day, Saipan, Iwo Jima, The Bulge,
Chosin Reservoir, Pork Chop Hill,
Ia Drang, Khe Sanh, Hamburger Hill,
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Famous battles in American history.
Washington, Scott, Grant, Lee, Custer,
Pershing, Patton, Eisenhower, Nimitz,
MacArthur, Westmoreland, Abrams.
Famous leaders in American history.
We are all familiar with these names and places.
But what about the nameless men and women?
The faceless citizens who gave up families, jobs,
education, comfort.
The ones who gave America their blood, bodies,
minds to defend us and set others free.
Their blood has stained countless lands.
Their wounds, physical and mental,
should remind us that freedom is not cheap.
The noncoms, privates, petty officers, junior officers.
The occupants of The Tomb of the Unknown,
the Punch Bowl, the French cemeteries, Arlington,
and countless unknown graves.
The living dead who suffer from grievous wounds
and PTSD.
These are the true heroes.
Who so maligns a noble man,
None but his own self tends to stain,
The ash thrown over head,
On one’s own head gets spread,
O indulge in no smear campaign.
__________________
Translation |28.01.2025| wisdom,
Poet’s note: Sanskrit has thousands of verses of wisdom called Subhashhitam. This verse warns us against maligning others. Doing so reflects on one’s own credibility. If you take a fistful of ash and throw it in air, it would fall on your own head. The transliteration of the Sanskrit verse follows:
Nindaam yah kurute saadhoh,
tathaa svam dooshayati asau |
Khe bhootim yah tyajet uchhaih,
moordhnih tasya eva sah patet ||
Sleeping Quarters
By David J Walker
The V for Vet designated the sleeping quarters
For the soldiers on the small-town cemeteries roster
I can only imagine what they might say to each other
at muster of the sunrise rollcall
The ones who fired squirrel guns across state lines
The ones who met the machine guns in France
The ones who chased the monster across the Rhyne
The ones who froze at the Chosin Reservoir
The ones that manned their guns and
Held their ground at the battle of Khe Sanh
And all the ones who came home
hoping to find peace
Before they take their place beside their brothers
Where they too can tell their tales to those who understand
If one day you don't kiss me anymore,
All the leaves and flowers are arid and die,
And the ocean has no waves dancing to the shore
There’s no rolling cloud in the blue sky
If one day you don't hug me anymore
This world will be washed away in hopeless,
My happiness is frozen like Arctic ice floes,
Life is very ungainly and meaningless.
If one day you don't look at me lovingly,
And don’t say sweet words of love to me,
I know my life is full of darkness,
And my soul is like gravel under the sea.
If one day you don't love me anymore,
The sun will die and the moon commits suicide,
This earth broke into thousands of pieces,
Is there any pieces left to bury my shattered life?
If one day you abandon my loving,
I know for sure my heart will stop beating.
Joe Hung Nguyen
(Khe Kinh Kha)
Mine enemy, well cursed and scorned
frail corpse askew and so adorned
in beggers cloths, cum uniform
was less a soldier ever born?
Scarlet spilled has gone to brown
the bullets spent that cut you down
have left a castle for the flies
and stole the fire behind your eyes.
Was heart, or mind that which inspires
nocturnal transit through the wires
Love of country, or was it fear
of us, or those who led you here?
Your sacrificial consequence
so little now, so little hence
lies dead now just inside the fence
your body, and my innocence.
To justify the call to war
Mine enemy, I needed more;
more hatred, ugliness and dread
to justify what made you dead.
Some will say that history shows
there are no atheists in holes
on Flander's fields or Khe San's hills
but shrapnel cares not who it kills.
I know fate's a fickle lover,
with blistered hands I dig my cover,
as ever vigilant she tries
to steal the fire behind my eyes.
Years from now when old and bent
I'll Rue the many days I've spent
the deeds from which I can't repent
as Fate's unwilling instrument.
And peace, I fear it only lies
behind the fire, behind the eyes.
They held the field, men side by side,
Their will intact, their fears subside.
They mustered in so many fields,
And held the ground, refused to yield.
At Lexington went toe to toe,
With British troops, a worthy foe.
McHenry saw our banner fly,
Against a burning brightened sky.
At Antietam, when thousands died,
They calmed themselves, fought on with pride.
On the Eastern front fought hard and well,
To rid the world of immoral hell.
The Ardennes saw fight most severe,
The troops fought, fought through their fear.
The Pacific saw men die galore,
To turn the tide at Corregidor.
At Heartbreak ridge fought through the night,
With Stand or Die their mantras might.
Khe Sahn saw men fall in droves,
When overwhelmed by local foes.
Fallujah helped the world to see,
The need to fight insurgency.
Khandahar pit the American,
Against the dreaded Taliban.
Our troops maintained, our troops prevailed,
Against each foe our troops assailed.
And though they fought with honor deep,
The fight they fought for peace to keep.
Suraj sa tapta ye roshan savera.....
Taron si bikhri ye kali rat h.....
Koi soye alishaN makano me.... .
Kisi ki chadar ye chandni rat h....
Kaise ye ajab duniya h....
Kaisa ajab insan h......
Khi Bahta h pani yo gande nalo me.....
Khi 2 ghunt ko tadpta ek mayus insan h....
Khi bikta h razhan bajaro me....
Khi 2 waqt ko mohtaj ek gareeb insan h....
Kaise ye ajab duniya h
Kaisa ajab insan h......
Khi lge nokri sifaris se......
Khi mile riswat hjaron me....
To khi berojgar ek nojwan h......
Koi anpad bne mantri jhan...
Ek shikshak khi preshan h......
Kaise ye ajab duniya h.....
Kaisa ajab insan h.....
Pathar bna jise puja h, Ourat bna thukraya h......
Ghr me najo se pli bitiya, sasural me use jlaya h.....
Paisa h sbse bda yhan, ek sikka sbki jaan h....
Kaise ye ajab duniya h........
Kaisa ajab insana h........
Bikta hr rista dukano pe, Lakhon iske kharidar h......
Sb riste yhan bikau h, bs insaniyat yhan bejar h....
Maine bhi khrida ek rista, jo anmol shi pe lachar h....
Koi bandish koi pabndi khe, yashu ne kha ye phar h....
Kaise he aJaB duniya h, kIsa ajab insan h.......
Lessons learned
by first the Chinese
then France
and the Unites States...
Never underestimate
unconventional units
or guerrilla warfare
supported by regular units...
Dien Bien Phu
Bernard B. Fall
called it
"Hell in a very small place"
soon after 1954
America walked the "Street without joy"
The Viet Minh
attacking satellite positions
seven in all
such names as
"Huguette"
"Claudine"
"Gabrielle"
"Beatrice"
General Giap
former school teacher
later besieged Khe Sanh
saved only by B-52 air strikes...
What men will die for
makes less sense
as time goes by...
Perhaps it is
the unspoken honor
among comrades
and brothers...
Still they soldiered on
60 years has passed
and around the world
the madness has grown...
~ ~ ~ ~
(TWENTYNET - 60s)
LOSS OF INNOCENCE
Fab four
Psychedelic colors
LSD powered yellow submarine
Ragas and flower children
Great Society
Female Liberation
Black Power
San Francisco
State of innocence - Garden of Eden
Shake off shackles of this earth
Space race
Gagarin Armstrong
Ask not what you can do
With a man on the moon
Ask rather what happened to Camelot
And the limitless power of illusion
Serpent’s destruction of dreams
Khe-Sanh state of siege
Detroit burning
Disunited states
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Written by Sydney Peck
for Nette Onclaud’s contest MAGIC OF DECADE'S MOOD
TWENTYNET - 60 s