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VIETNAM  WAR  POETRY
​
ESTER PRUDLO 

                        John 

                                                ( 1946 - 1968 ) 

                        He was a country boy
                        Used to pee in the weeds.
                        Had his share of girls in the hay in the barn.
                        Not Charlotte. She was going to be the mother of his children.
                        Charlotte would wait, and he would join the Navy
                        Escape the Army draft. The recruiter told him he could study electronics.
                        He would return to her employable, ready for marriage and babies.

                        Once he was in, the Navy sorted him out
                        to train as a medic, a good job for a smart boy
                        who would go into combat unarmed,
                        to save Marines, the Cream of the Navy.

                        John didn’t die right away. He was in Nam two weeks,
                        into the field the first day of TET,
                        his lower body shot up.

                        John died later.
                        In and out of consciousness on the hospital ship
                        he had enough time to know that Charlotte
                        would have to find another guy
                        to father her children. 


                        by Contributing Poet  Ester Prudlo   Copyright © 2015 
                        VWP 2015     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com 
                        Bio:  Ester Hauser Laurence Prudlo  is the author of children’s books, fiction,
                        non-fiction articles. Her poems have appeared in 
VerseWisconsin, Madison Magazine, 
                        
Birmingham Arts Journal, Postcards & Prose, Lummox. New Mirage Journal & in several anthologies.
                        She taught creative writing courses with University of Wisconsin Extension.
                        A retired counselor to soldiers and inmates, she and husband Tony,
​                        now spend summers in Wisconsin and winters in Alabama.
 
 

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