Since we celebrated Memorial Day yesterday, I thought about people in my family who had served in the military, in particular, my brother's service in the Marines during the Vietnam War.
As you will see from the poem “Reflecting on Letters from Vietnam”, he wrote to me rather than to other family members.
I never have forgotten what the letters contained, and yesterday my muse let me write the poem I've needed to write for many years.
“Where's the Music?” was written last year on Aug. 8 after we heard from our grandson who was in Afghanistan at the time with the U.S. Army. Mike now is back in the states after a two- year deployment.
Where’s the Music?
By Dr. Janet Hoult
“Where’s the music?” the young man said
As he strapped his helmet to his head,
“This isn’t at all what I thought it would be
Not a bit like the movies that I’ve been to see.”
“There’s dust and there’s dirt
And there’s far too much hurt.
My buddy, who’s been shot,
Lies near a body left to rot
By the side of the road
As if he was a toad.”
“No, there’s no glory there.
There’s no music anywhere.
Just the rifle shots blur
And the helicopters whirr
As we march wearily along
Our hearts deadened to song.”
Reflecting on Letters from Vietnam – Memorial Day 2012
By Dr. Janet Hoult
The years I taught in France, I heard often from my brother
A Marine in Vietnam, he didn’t want to write our mother
About the battles, the Vietnamese and the misery of the troops
And about the Viet Cong caging people in chicken coops
But the ones that are imprinted firmly in my mind
Are letters describing his friends whose bodies he would find
Mutilated and tortured, their faces frozen in horror
Knowing that this could happen, makes you want an end to war.
Our troops serve our country and have faithfully through the years
Just knowing they are ready to protect us can ease our fears
Yet do you remember what happened when our troops returned
From Vietnam and they found that they were spurned…
Anyone in uniform was met with open derision
Why did fellow Americans make such a decision?
Now our troops serve to help other countries achieve peace
They and people of the world want the endless wars to cease
We need to honor all the men and women we have lost
For each war that’s fought, demands a heavy cost
My brother has formed an honor guard for his brothers-in-arms
For he knows they died to ensure we would not be harmed.
A retired academician, Dr. Hoult may be contacted at HOULTight@aol.com
