Memorial Day Tribute to Marines at Khe Sahn 2017

Enjoying the freedoms our brave vets have secured for us over the years and decades from my father's generation to those today on the front line against ISIS, i stopped into a Barnes and Noble to feed my bibliophile craving to buy a Nook and the latest Baldachi release. In checking out I asked the young woman if her grandfather had served in WWII. She said no but he had served in Vietnam, which makes an aging poet realize how old he is becoming. I told her i had written a poem about Marines and Vietnam and in her honor would post it. Semper Fi and God bless each and everyone of my generation that served in such a godforsaken war in which we were doomed to lose way too many brave men and women who answered the call and on this day dear God hear our prayers that due to our strength never again will we have to send thousands upon thousands into harm"s way.  

Tribute to the Marines at Khe Sanh on this Veterans’ Day 2016

We had no choice

We had no voice

No control over where we were sent

And yet into harm’s way we went

Billions wasted, billions spent

Lives lost, minds ruined, bodies maimed and bent

Only elders voted, only elders spoke

Release the dogs of war, images of glory to evoke

All sense of why and of caution to revoke

The flags waving, the canons roar to invoke

Release the dogs of war

The body bags to soar

No cheers and no welcome home parades

Only the light at the end of the tunnel charade

Hold Khe Sanh a worthless piece of terrain

Dig deeper to escape the shells falling like monsoon rains

Unlike the French we Marines will beat Nguyen

But like the French this is a war we cannot win

Despite all the Pentagon spin

Will God punish the elders for their sins?

We held Khe Sanh but for us no poems of Flanders Fields

Semper Fi to those who lived, to those who did not yield

To those whose names are etched on a granite wall

A sacred monument in the Washington Mall

Come close, come near

Put next to it your ear

Through the granite you will hear

The voices, do not hold back your tears

We had no voice

We had no choice

But we answered the call

Instead of poppies in a field we remain etched forever on this granite wall

© November 7, 2016, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 

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