709.
Prayer to Mary:
Our Lady in Vietnam
Hail Mary, patron of certain places
You are our Mother, our Queen, our Patroness
The Our Lady of La Vang – Our Lady in Vietnam
Bless this place & its people who to you come
Take care of Vietnam, our beloved Mother
By God's will, be its nurturer now & hereafter
Look after Vietnam, our respected Queen
By God's power, be its protector against darkness & sin.
Amen.
-10/09/2019
(Dumarao)
*Prayers to Mary as the Our Lady of Special Places
You can look back now
being much older
for they had pulled your number
in the lottery
you had won the grand prize
an all expense paid trip
to neverland
courtesy of Uncle Sam
hand me down helmet on head
slightly used peace in hand
in turn....
you marched
others had before you
falling prey to an unforeseen enemy
some....a surface wound....
the others are all dead
shall we hold a funeral
where no one will come
and everyone will cry ?
some surrendered to hallucinations grasp
pseudo-reality for sanity's sake
the sane could have only dreamed reality
but you had won, you had found the answer
you crossed over....the brook beneath you
babbling under the pretense of happiness
crimson from end to end
to no-end
58,000+ souls perished in the Vietnam War
And the tributes came thereafter
Museums, statues, bridges, radio stations
Young men and women starting out in life
Succumbed by shrapnel and warfare
Souls reaching heaven before their time
I know liberty and I know freedom
Because of the courage of these soldiers
Proud to perform their duty
I sit on my couch in peace
Listening to the Vietnam Vet Radio
Tunes that our protectors once followed
I can not express enough
The love and respect I have for these people
We can only honor the vets the best we can
I imagine that when I get to heaven
The paradise will be filled by those young soldiers
Keeping watch over the heavenly kingdom
… as they did on Earth
January 27, 1973
I was sitting in the barracks
yelling and screaming echoed through the halls
sirens blaring, horns blowing, fireworks popping;
the war was over
a moment in Vietnam
Heavy rain had fallen in the night
in the morning, a cable line in the road
and fallen leaves
it was the cafe's phone line
a woman street clear cleared the wet
leaves, the café manager gave her
iced tea
in the afternoon, the locals watched
a movie that was half forbidden
by the authorities
You remember the mud blood and mosquitos
And the Agent Orange brought back as a memento
In your jungle greens at Vung Tau
Nui Dat memories won’t fade even now
Picked out of the lottery for National Service each one
Taken by the Vung Tau ferry or Qantas your Vietnam service begun
Each soldier on their tour in sacrifice for country
In loyalty to Australia fighting for others to be free
Regulars and National Service in pride you stand
It’s been 50 years and Australia remembers each woman and man
We are proud of these Australians one and all
Who stood tall for us in an unpopular war at our beck and call.
© Paul Warren Poetry
The World That is Located in the Sky
David J Walker
Witnesses all
To the fall of Saigon
In 75
And after all
Was lost or won
What we Though
we saw
Was not at all
What we had Seen\or Said/or Done
The monsoon rains would
Again come
And nurture the ferns and palms
Of the poisoned jungle
The rice paddies plowed by
Tractorized buffalo
The noisy flow
of traffic
On Tu Do Street,
Paved by elite
shoppers
Of freedom
At a terrible cost
The souls lost
Across the battlefields
Sell their dog tags
For passage into
Troi - thuong gioi
The world that is located in the sky
Over Vietnam
Oh, you boys of arrogant tongue far from your land
What demons swarm among your brother’s band?
Without a care you shunned the face of fame
Though disgraced at home was your honorable name
In combat, you locked eyes with formidable foe
From blood and death your bravery refused to go
No, easy conquest of that rebel land
It’s more than blood that drips from your hand
On what cause did this conflict invite?
Some said power, not freedom for which you fight
In the end 58000 troops were dead
Names on a wall was where their spirits fled
America looked on with her streaming eyes
While her heroes fell in sacrifice
She owned the power to aid her soldier’s storm
But held it back to embrace liberal reform
Those brave troops numerous as the sand
Done their duty on their country’s command
Gave their all on the firing line
The story is told for every name divine
We returned home a few at a time,
our tour in- country, ending.
Some growing from their experience,
we had left the war behind, our armor crumbling
Into rust.
Others , tho happy to be home, became
Weary, broken, burnt out, on drugs
and without hope.
The folks back home did not understand us.
We needed to talk but what was there to say?
They were innocent and walked around us
on tender feet to keep it light.
The old ones who did understand were busy dying off
And the young ones had their own war to fight
and we were forgotten.
We grow older and keep our memories with us
and take our war to our Band of Brothers.
We become brave in our stories to each other.
Like the generations gone before it will end, we will crumble into dust.
Was it worth it fecking Sinjin Hawke
When you could’ve been with Stringfellow?
But the lure of drugs in the Golden triangle
So much better and a guy with an edge
condemned
died
reprimand
cried
government war
cease fire
democracy whore
more black men dying, dire
body bags
LSD
citizens cried for our guys, to be free
end this conflict please
Liberty
supposed to train oppress to be
armed to protect their liberty
the opposed then set free
Oh! So complex world South Vietnam
Condemned world conflict
60,000 Souls died
indigenous fortress
communist reprimand military conflict
Cries
started in 1955
stop prevent spread
of Communism
throughout all of Southeast Asia
Sound the alarm
End the war in Vietnam
9/5/74
Written by James Edward Lee ©1974, 2021
I cried at the Wall today
I can’t explain why.
These were men, boys, who lost
their lives for me.
I never met them, I never will.
But their sacrifice,
their willingness to put it all
on the line for love,
honor, duty, God, Country
Astounds me.
Every name, every etching, every
panel, every letter, so sad
so moving.
So heartbreaking that they
weren’t welcomed home, their
fight forgotten.
We stand, staring at their names,
photos, drawings, poems left
behind by those who really
knew them, or didn’t
I cried, silent sobs heaving my chest
I can’t explain why
Unless you already know
For Those Thrust into War's Maw
by Michael R. Burch
This poem is dedicated to Harvey Stanbrough, an ex-marine who was nominated for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize and has written passionately and eloquently about the horror and absurdity of war in “Lessons for a Barren Population.”
No, I will never know
what you saw or what you felt,
thrust into the maw of Eternity,
watching the mortars nightly
greedily making their rounds,
hearing the soft damp hiss
of men’s souls like helium escaping
their collapsing torn bodies,
or lying alone, feeling the great roar
of your own heart.
But I know:
there is a bitter knowledge
of death I have not achieved,
and in thankful ignorance,
and especially for my son
and for all who benefit so easily
at so unthinkable a price,
I thank you.
Published by Romantics Quarterly, Poetic Reflections and Poetry Super Highway as "Privilege." Keywords/Tags: Vietnam War, marines, military, service, honor, duty, bravery, heroism, maw, mortars, rounds, souls, escaping, bodies, corpses, death, heart, roar, bitter, knowledge, thanks, thank you, war, violence, USA, military, courage, patriotic, hero
If everybody had an ocean
it would be the bomb
everybody'd be surfin'
like in Vietnam
when we're on R&R
we surf China Beach
get away from the war
and the jungle heat
a little vacation
out of the way of harm
tell the Sergeant we're surfin'
Surfin' Vietnam
Some came home…
but never came back
Some came back…
but never came home
Caught between
forever
And what forever
—had disowned
(Vietnam Veterans Memorial: March, 2020)
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