It was more than a lifetime ago, I was just 17 back then across the distant faded years. Amost 50 years to be exact.
The jungle is forgiving no matter how the war had torn it and poisoned it, with agent Orange fertilized it with the blood of so many young men. It recovered as resilient as a spring in the hardware store resuming its original shape as though nothing had ever been there.
I am an old man now far from the blush of my youth spent here but I need to be here before my time is passed. I could feel it calling me in the nightbirds song. In the summer rainstorms. And mostly when the thunder cracked the air.
I find the clearing where it happened And close my eyes almost in prayer.
And I know I canfeel them here again with me, all of them.
We are all so young,so handsome so full of life and possibilities. We are passing round a doobie I take a long deep drag of the **** my head calms down. I see my girl my mother and sister. But they are a lifetime removed.
A feeling for my buddies overtakes me perhaps it was the marijuana maybe it's just plain love, Yes, I think it was love.
I shout, I love you man to my best buddy Joe. He shouts back not as much as I love you man,
Soldiers get closer than wives and girlfriends we touch where it counts where all the chips fall. Where blood spills And promises are kept. It's real love not that ****** holywood crap.
I keep my eyes closed I feel Joe close by me. I know now why I made this journey . Why I was here pulling the scabs of old wounds letting them bleed again.
I see the tracer lights of the gunfire in the clearing. I see Joe fall mortally wounded. guys were dying all around me. They were not calling for god they cried like children Their last cry for their mother..
I hold Joe in my my arms He is dying. His blood soaks my shirt. Tears fall from my young eye's. It's a vision that is etched into my soul. his last words are I love you man.
I open my eyes It now again the noise has stopped in my head. The clearing is. ghostly silent except for the ceasless chirping of the jungle.
My mouth whispers softly. Capturing all that was left of me. Not as much as I love you man.