Memorial Day, 2017

The Vietnam vet stares at the wide

Forty-two-inch TV screen.

Every so often he steals a glance

At an article in an old magazine.

 

He rolls his chair across the room

To look out the window. The sun is shining.

He hears a voice on the TV say,

"Every cloud has a silver lining."

 

Shaking his head, he wheels himself

Back across the room to see

What is going on in the world.

Elections? Storms? A shooting spree?

 

Memorial Day parades are occurring;

On gravestones wreaths are being laid.

On one channel hundreds of photos

Of fallen soldiers are being displayed.

 

Then he hears a news report:

More U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

He sits in quiet disbelief,

Listening to the news anchorman.

 

Looking down at his lifeless legs,

Again he can only shake his head.

His heart sinks, so he changes the channel

To watch another program instead.

 

The words, however, continue to haunt him

And echo through his war-weary brain:

"More troops…more troops…"

To Afghanistan? This is insane!

 

"How can so many commentators

Look and sound so unconcerned?"

He asks himself, over and over.

"In all these years, what have we learned?"

 

Depressed, he turns the TV off

And sits alone, lost in his thoughts,

His heart racing, his hands trembling,

His eyes tearing, his stomach in knots.

 

Only those in the battle zones

See what they'd never seen before--

Things that will surely haunt them forever--

The unspeakable horrors of war.

 

(5-26-17) By Bob B