On the Vietnam War Memorial
the dead in ruins now
war cemeteries rocks stones
memories of summer vacations
lying on the grass looking at the sky
now they’re looking at the underside of roots
trees growing through
apples blooming in their chests
we think we can still talk on the phone
on TV, send letters or emails
but they are not listening behind the wall
the roots and grass are all they hear
3 comments:
Powerful, vivid! I see it. Brilliant, awful.
Some people spend a lifetime trying to contact 'the other side' - Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle being two of them.
So poignant! I have lost nobody close to a war, but hate the idea of it all the same. I can imagine a lost loved one gone that way.
And I wonder at the whole war-dead-celebration thing and know if it wasn't for the public solace it offers, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters would rise up in revolt. It is too much to ask.
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