Remembering Vietnam

Remembering Vietnam

We forced you
Into war with a draft.
Then as you served
We turned our backs.

You fought hard not to die.
Then you found something
Worse than being dead:
Friends died instead.

As you finally came home
Wondering why him and not you
You needed embrace, but
We answered with boos.

I am not We.

I see now in those eyes
Bright blue like the tears you cried
A boy made a man
As bullets rained down from the skies.

I see now on those hands
Aged and awash with stories
The shackles of a willing slave
Fighting for his country so brave.

I see now the young man
Whose baseball bat became an assault rifle,
And whose baseball card collection
Became a kill count.

I see now the soldier
Whose newfound muscles tried to rip free
From the constrains of the uniform
That transformed a man into an idea.

No longer David A. Shaw;
Now US51880592.

I see now a hero.
You are not invisible,
You are not forgotten.
Thank you.