​                        Bone 

                        Oh the load we carried
                        home from 'Nam.
                        The general ordered
                        "kill the damn enemy,
                        everyone of them."

                        But the woman.
                        Scarf wrapped around her head,
                        waist deep in a swamp,
                        young son wearing a bamboo hat
                        nestled in her arms.

                        Now I hear the chopper,
                        taste sweat on my lips,
                        smell blood in the dirt,
                        see bone on the road
                        as I walk my children to school. 


                        by Contributing Poet  Arlin Buyert   Copyright © 2017 
                        VWP 2017     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com 

​

                        "Oh Say Can You See" 

                        As preamble
                        to high school basketball games,
                        it felt fine.

                        As highlight
                        of Memorial Day
                        at cemetery

                        it roused my youthful joy.
                        As crown jewel
                        of Saturday parades

                        in boot camp,
                        it drummed shivers through my blood.
                        As "bombs bursting in air"

                        became our bombs
                        bursting a village in Vietnam-
                        I can sing no more.

                        I saw.
                        I saw too much. 


                        by Contributing Poet  Arlin Buyert   Copyright © 2017 
                        VWP 2017     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com 

                        Bio:  Arlin Buyert  was born and raised on his family's farm near Sioux Center, Iowa
​                        where he graduated from high school.
                        Formally educated at Macalester College and The University of Minnesota,
​                        he has published three books of poetry and 
                        edited two anthologies of inmate poetry that were published by Arts in Prison.
​                        Arlin is retired and lives with his wife Kris Kvam in Leawood, Kansas.
​                        He served as a Navy pilot from 1966-1971.