4TH OF JULY 2003

4TH OF JULY 2003

Independence Day

Forty years have come and gone, though one year remains vivid and
revives itself as the never-ending chapter of a Vietnam Veterans
life. Forty years of remembrance containing visions of blood sweat
and tears along with the smell of a jungle that penetrates the very
souls of those who have fought amongst the odds of surviving our
war. The question remains as to when this war will cease and the
demons of this war will be vanquished from our presence. We entered
into the domain of the snake and Tiger full of youth and it seemed
at that time we were immortal. Cocky kids from a land of peace who
would soon find out what fear meant. A fear that would never go
away. Not the fear of anxiety, but the fear that we would never be
accepted. A fear that we would not be remembered, a fear that we
would stand alone as the symbol of the shame of our country. Was our
sacrifice worthy enough, was our blood red enough and were we
unforgivable in the eyes of our nation and ourselves? We carry the
guilt of our fallen, we carry the memories of Khe sahn, Conthien,
Ia Drang Valley, the ridges, the mud, the rains, the leech filled
streams, fevers, jungles and friends since long passed, but timeless
and ever present in our hearts. Smells unwillingly send us back to a
time and place that we fought so hard to get out of. That of napalm,
burnt flesh, burning villages, gunpowder, spent brass, death and
formaldehyde. Sounds of choppers still demand our attention, as do
loud noises and backfires. Crowds unsettle, and silence unnerves us
to the point of distraction. We as old Vietnam Veterans are seeing
our numbers dwindle and have seen the result of not being able to
cope among some of our brothers by the taking of their own lives. We
stand helpless while feeling their pain and we continue to carry it
forth so they shall live, so long as we shall live. That my brothers
and sisters is our chosen lot in this life. To remember and to
preserve their honor, to hold one another up who have witnessed the
sinister deeds of war. Freedom and liberty are ours and yet we are
bound by invisible cords of loyalty and dedication to preserve the
memories of our war and of our fallen heroes. These cords are but
lifelines extending to the Wall, through the Wall and beyond the
Wall, to one another. May our grip remain strong that we hold fast
to our heritage and to our own.

Independence Day?
Not today,
Not for this lifetime.....

Boon....

©Richard Preston 6/11/03

The Patriot Rose
by Gary Jacobson © 2003

O come smell the patriot rose
Adorned in sweetest calms perfumed repose
Touched by ambrosial breath of peaceful prose
Inspiring heavenly scented songs poets compose
Biding sparkling liberty, from vibrant colors arose
Aromatic air rife with patriots freedoms chose
Indeed, the heavenly choir sings joyous tribulations
Sonorous rhythms exaltations
Honoring this proud rose
That worldly thorns, tares and thistles overthrows.

O come smell the patriot rose
Inspiring bravery in men to an evil tyrant depose
Now when the battles all around us won
Big guns stilled...every one
Bombing runs stopped, their duty done
Time now for peaceful accord
Time for rights of the people in brotherhood restored.
So long may she proudly stand
Her vibrance inspiring this patriotic band.

O come smell the patriot rose
From a beauteous land that inspired heroes
Who self-rule, self-reliance, self-determinations propose
O come rise from hiding in bunkered burrows
Breathe in the sacred purpose in glory delight
The patriot rose instilling in all mankind, blessed right.
Yet deadly skirmishing continues with enmitys still
Velvet night winds with vile hatred fill...

O come smell the patriot rose
That evils maniacal machinations oppose
Ripped from the hand the tyrant too long concealed
Patriotism benevolent, this ancient and holy land restored
Its sacred heart set free, like the dove loosed
From he who like the coward he is vamoosed.
Torn from he who to his people thumbed his nose
By a people who pompously grandiose affectations expose
By shock and awe administered retribution in megadose
So no more will his poisoned tongue wag verbose.

O blessed be the saintly patriot rose
Breathe in beautified ambiance where no longer sorrow grows
Who offers peace, arrayed with might, in glorified hues
Majestically arrayed in red, white and blues
Do not this blessed moment lose
For too long youve paid a despots sacrificial dues
From democracy,freedom or dictatorship, pick and choose
By patriotism, precepts of liberty sanctified will now unloose.

Red Badge of Courage

by Gary Jacobson © 2003
The Red Badge of Courage
Beguiles youngns seeking glorys prestige
Ambitious youth seeking from the midst of carnage
Immediate nobility
A heroes notability
Forged from a coward a hero be...
Bravery wrought his destiny.

Bearing passions with bravado to lick em all,
Tightrope walking the lip of battles fall
Charging all by yourself, proud and tall
Earn Preeminence
Proud prestige through battlefield prominence
Fight through gloried illustriousness.

Win a warriors reputation of storied distinction
Facing up to blood an destruction
Unafraid and without deviation
To righteously serve for whats right
With a warriors appetite
To fight the good fight.

Youths battle crys a sword, a bullet
His combat badge of courage an amulet
Given to fight the enemy with passion
With a Spartans ration
Regular gamecocks
Wily as the fox.

Charge
Into the valley
Into the shadow
Into the mouth of guns
Lost every sense but your hate.
For guts and love and glory irate
For country, mom and apple pie
Pray to the Lord and hope not to die
But if you should die in the battles wake
Pray the Lord your soul to take.

Welcome soldiers gone to touch the great death
Tempting the master of lies evil breath
Glory mired in the blood and the mud
Honor and duty now but to survive
And watch the backs of the brotherhood
Stay alive...
And hope that its enough.

But do they not bleed
This youthful seed
The Red Badge of Courage need
Youthful fodder for its cannons
To fill the void between ranks
Someone to guard the flanks...

Now dreaming of home
Trying not to think of what youve become
When the night turns to soft and eternal peace
Gods of war to somehow appease
Your girl, your mom and dad...
Who knew it would be so bad.

Glory, glory, Hallelujah
Rah-rah, oompah-pah
Capture their flag
Watch out for that biting frag...
Hold it aloft for all to see
Divine the victory...

Youve earned your Red Badge of Courage
Forever wear over your soul its bandage
Won what some call a Move too slow award
Fit to join the ranks on high...
Proved to all youre not a coward...
And up there somebodys smilin
Who said hed never smile again...

Distant Echoes

by Gary Jacobson © 2003
Distant echoes come wafting over far hills and plain
Rushing, hurtling, rising on prevailing winds
Peace sounding with hollow, bitter pain
Crowned everlasting free from death climactic sends.

Young men too oft ride war swells rising crescendo
Swim in tempestuous tides of life never ending
Enraptured by past allures of glories empty echo
Earning now a lost promise young lives rending.

Brave men hear the congregation crying the lost echo
Yet mortal mouths cannot from their heart still its cries
Falling to earth like proverbial walls of Jericho
Death promoted by the master of lies.

War exists as natures contrast to suckling her young
Hatreds nourished by evils foul breath narcotic.
Babelled lashings heard of the devils tongue
Rhetoric fueling dueling guns to a foetal life bombastic.

Remember to your dying day your call to arms
So young, so innocent, so naive, so foolishly brave
Going gung-ho into a cacophony of harms
Discordant freedoms of the world to save.

Mortal differences intolerant war depraves
Hatreds fomenting, floating, on stagnant air solemn still
Blitzing thunder ushering mankind back to his caves
To hear ringing, singing, anxieties primal shrill.

Funerary sounds echo mournfully somber
Ancient survivals still clash in a warriors ear heard
Wars lustful eye pondering, always remember
Time...brothers lost lingering, in killings absurd.

Now older, grayer, still...back humping that hill
Distant echoes still beat in hearts of men
Ofttimes when the day dawns hot and still
Still back there fighting in the heart of Vietnam.

Traverse again the devils portal
Scalps tingle, fearing men coming to kill
Wax again on fateful wars coincidental
Dread accompanied by demon dregs of ill will.

O bang the drums slowly
Honor the boy with that thousand yard stare.
Bear his solemn message to soldiers living restlessly
A soldiers life-blood boils, forever back there.

This Is A Place Of Remembrance

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