Vietnam

Vietnam

 

greenbacks for green marshes

and yellow oozing red

the joy of marches

the happy violence

as people carrying signs

are tear gassed with love

from establishment parents

sharing a sentiment

"no explanations, just do it because I said so"

 

the sacrifices abound

as does the hate on returning

to the lack of acceptance

doing duty to God and country

is a myth to many

who feel betrayed

by the very multitude

who were just a number in a lottery

and had no choice

when they were chosen

 

so many years later

we reflect failures

misadventures

agent Orange minds

squeezed shut

by a plethora of political shame

 

send us your strong

so we can shatter their futures

with guilt, regret

bewilderment as to why

Is this what God wanted?

 

Is this what I think about

when praying in Church

were we made in his image

 

and did that image

tote a gun, a grenade

and a lack of consideration 

for human life?

 

I am wearing out my rosary

trying to find the answers

and the beads are disintegrating

in my hands.

 

erin-cilberto

8/10/25

Reviews

[Relic]

Ain't no time to wonder why, whoopie we're all gonna die.

People burning draft cards, long hair being cut off, LSD....it's as though the government didn't approve of the hippie generation and wanted to teach them to be men, but they destroyed them in the process. I like the truth and irony in this one, J.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, destroyed so many...
thank you, Relic.
j.

[Lorry]

You're line "because I said so" from the establishment parents somehow morphed in my mind to an Uzi toting God, with two belt clips of ammo slung over his shoulders saying "doing what I me damn tell ya!" by the end of your piece here Jacob.
But really, can we even blame God for occasionally losing his sh*t at us for the mess we make of making hard decisions even more convulated and difficult, by disagreeing with extreme prejudice at our neighbours?
We have turned our paradise into a fourth world fixer upper and tanked the resale value for any prospective planet sale he may have had in mind, giving the profits to charity of course, because he may be cheesed off at us but he is a kind God when we don't p*iss him off!
😃

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, he is a kind God but we can only push him so far and he will explode.
j.

[Ayesha Faiz]

Your poem feels so real and heavy, like you’re carrying memories that still hurt even after all these years. It shows the unfairness, the confusion, and the pain of being part of something you never truly chose or wished for. The lines about “tear gassed with love” and the rosary beads breaking in your hands make the feelings even stronger they show both anger and deep sadness. It’s like you’re asking questions that have no answers, about universe, about war, and about why people treat each other this way. Reading it feels like sitting with someone who has lived through it and is still trying to make sense of it all.
I truly enjoyed every bit of this poem.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I really appreciate your understanding review, Ayesha.
thank you.
j.

[An owl on the moon]

Such powerful, haunting words. I find such pain here... anger... sorrow... a deep desire to understand something so incomprehensible... Thank you for sharing such a dark history of this world... of our world.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for your words, owl,
j.

[Mauricio Montoya]

Wow, bro I remember this I was born in the sixty if I didn't spell it right I'm F Up. I read it I will say this you can pick the words But were I'm I but I read it so over I got losses but its a good write, no read it ,I don't keep reading a write if I don't like, lol I did laugh. Okay I did enjoy the read.

[Mauricio Montoya]

Good write

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thanks Mauricio.
j.

[Mauricio Montoya]

Lol you are an enjoyable read because I never know what I find if I continue to read but no matter what I think your word have thought, make me wonder did I read it right,
Thank you for sharing

[FlatDaddy]

Jacob, I find I must apologize. I meant to leave aa review of your masterful piece on a dark part of American History -- and certainly, mine as well. Instead, I reacted to your words, to what they touched in me. You wrote not of the past; you wrote of MY past. This was my history, and I suddenly saw it all before me again. No, I served, but not in that war. Still, I was affected in many ways. Your words brought back the truth of that time.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I appreciate your words, FlatDaddy. And thank you for your service.
j.
j.

[FlatDaddy]

Of course, J.

[Betty Hermelee]

great comments about war and protesting and the establishment; specifically what we used to kill the Vietnamese….. the war was wrong and too many of our won came home lost……confused, maimed and mentally broken…. even i went down to DC to protest…but i was already married and had nothing to do with my parents! This war never should have happened…and i personally know a few who dodged it and went to Canada
Warmly, B🙏🙏🙏🙏🌷

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, me too on those going to Canada.
Hard to blame them.
j.

[Betty Hermelee]

Vietnam will always be a shadow in our lives!!
Warmly, B

[h d e rushin]

100 years from now, when we are all gone, what wars will the occupants of this earth have to muse over? The way technology and warfare are going, conventional, man-to-man wars will be a thing of the past. And that same technology will make us lose that diasporic bridge between our reckonings and our needs for meditation. But in the meantime, you are amazing. dana.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for your insights and kind words, dana.
j.

[keith]

you know nothing of vietnam!
keep your cookie cutter crap to yourself!
HOW FUKIN DARE YOU!
58220 of my brothers died
HOW FUKIN DARE YOU!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I lived through those days, had friends who went and came back different...my sister had a dear friend who was killed two days before coming home...she was planning a party for him.
My feelings about this war and what I write is from my heart. And my heart is NOT cookie cutter crap.
Thank you for reading.
j.

[keith]

i never supported the vietnam war ... never
and yet was citizens like me poor not in school mostly black brown yellow green purple not the rich white students in fact NO students were drafted
i supported the anti war efforts ... most of us bullet dodgers did!
tell me your horrors of being spit on and called baby killers ... tell me jacob
i feel for everyone that lost afrriend a family member or just someone they knew
comparing disappointment because you didn't have a party
you have shown your true colors jacob
you sir are an insult to every fukin dead kid that came home in a black fukin body bag
how dare you compare 'for the joy of marches the happy violence' to holding another for compassion and comfort to a fellow being while their leg or arm or guts spilling everywhere
every time i get blood on my hands i return to the horrors of my war
enjoy your sweet dreams while us the unfortunate sons and daughters are dragged back into the worst fukin days of our lives!

writing from your heart is a poor excuse for your lack of respect for those remembered on OUR WALL 58220
we remember them everyday pal everyday

you have a great day sir

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and as an avid poet and poetry reader, you did not see the sarcasm in those lines you mentioned...I meant the complete opposite of joy and happy. I am surprised you missed that.
j.

[Neha agrawal]

I may not know much about the history you’ve written about, but I do know that soldiers in every country serve with heart and soul, often at great cost to themselves and their families. It’s heartbreaking that governments so often fail to truly care for them after their sacrifice.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, with heart and soul...and they needed to be appreciated for that, regardless of what we thought of that war.
j.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I've a lot of friends who served in Vietnam and my brother served as well. They did the job required of them by their country. They did not volunteer for the job or agree to the position of their enlistment. But they didn't run away from their perceived duty either but rather did what legal conscription demanded. I called my brother-in-law (also a Vietnam vet) on Veteran's Day to thank him for his service and he said to me, "Well, Fabian, we never really wanted to do any of that but they made us." I think most of them feel that way.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, a very sad war indeed...caused so much conflict here at home...and so many were hated because they only did what their country asked of them. Thank you for sharing what you did, Fabian.
j.