AIR FORCE
There were those times
On long missions over Laos and the Gulf of Tonkin
When a weariness settled over us
Over pilot and navigator and crew
Settled on us like a resigned acceptance
Like the letting go before sleep arrives
Our shoulders sagged
And our voices became hoarse
It was as if we were entering another dimension
Where worry was not a concern.
And then over the radio came the voice of an F105 pilot
On a bombing run over Hanoi
Whose voice sounded the weariest of all
MAYDAY! He called out on emergency frequency
My plane's been hit and I'm bailing out
As if he realized at that moment
That his life hung on more than his parachute
On more than a missing man formation.
Categories:
tonkin, military,
Form: Free verse
Sin plagues the land!
Where men cry out from false pulpits
That we can get :back to the Garden"
And mongrelize ourselves into
Some kind of World Man,
Sin plagues the land.
Where honest, decent fellows
Are dragged off to lose
The no-win wars, and
"righteous causes" become
Enmeshed in UN delegations
And rich senators for hire!
And lies roar out of the Gulf
of Tonkin
Tseunami-like, wearing medals they explode
Into long rows of graves and long rows of steel
Emplanted upright still steaming from the
Cutter charges,
And sandbags sprout like locasts
In the streets of old Kuwait
And up to Tikrit's fortress,
While lies flow in the night
Back and forth from DC town
And From Tel Aviv to Tehran
And back again,
History writes its story
On the dust of our dead sons.
And the Court Historians make a movie of it.
We'll watch it just for fun.
Categories:
tonkin, confusion, death, forgiveness,
Form: Rhyme