Jack in CT photo by MDG

Washington DC
at 1:33 PM
on a Thursday

poem #3 - vietnam

i never knew you
but i touched
your name,
chiseled
on a black
marble wall

long lines pass you by
some stop, remember
some feel you,
return the touch

children race by,
their day uncomplicated
they don’t understand
or know
or ask
about your sacrifice
made in blood

old men, your friends
comrades in terror
relate stories
to those that will listen
some cry, some only watch,

from a distance

some fear the approach
and just never stop by

i didn’t know you, but i
feel you, memories blur
down from the mud

swallowed in fear, pawns
in a game neither
side could win

here i stand, your name
on my fingers, a scramble
of letters, forty years
gone

i touch the black wall
my tears hot against
my cheek

i never knew you, but i
know you, yet find
i have nothing
significant to say

© 2008 Jack Henry/Ca

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