I am sixty-four and it has been forty-three years
since I fought in America's only losing war
as a highly trained combat Marine
whose only job was to ****
and still after so long not a single day
goes by that I don't wonder  
why I didn't die.

And I won't lie because there are
so many times I wish I was dead
because of what goes on in my head
and sometimes I just sit and cry
but for some reason I find strength
and overcome what was long ago done
by me as a youth and I know
that I will live to see
another season but can't
see the reason.

Thirteen months of daily combat
in the "Valley of Death" seemed over so fast
as each of us just tried to last
just one more day and now thoughts about it
forever will last and sometimes
sleep never comes because Charlie haunts
us day and night as we sit up
waiting for daylight.

Memorial Day Celebrations are nice
and they mean well but for some of us
it is our own personal Hell because of the crap
ignorant people say and their words make us sad
but at least I am glad that I am not
one of the many Veterans who will
commit suicide today and that trend continues
every day of the week 365 days a year
which has to bring a tear.

So Memorial Day just reminds Vietnam Veterans
that we are a generation that society
would like to forget but so many of us
are still here and are trying to hang on to life so dear
but so many of us know that the end
is so very near.                                                  Jon York     2013    
                                                                ­            Vietnam  USMC  1969-70  
                                                                ­            A Shau Valley - I Corp