Ghosts (video 2:05)
The dead from that war so long ago
continue to haunt.
I wish it were possible to speak with them,
but I know not what language,
English, Vietnamese, French, or perchance
ghosts speak in tongues not understood by the living,
boughs whispering in breeze,
wind wolves sighing through grasslands,
call of redtail hawk.
I wish I could understand,
I wish one would speak to me, maybe
the burned boy who lived nine days, or
the gut-shot PFC called upon to endure twenty minutes,
or the lucky one, killed instantly, one bullet, one heart.
All dwell deep in my skull, reclusive,
not coming forth to tell what I want to know.
Were one to speak up, he might be angry,
having expected a seven-course dinner
but served only a mess of pottage,
resenting, perhaps, my surviving, and
surely questioning the point in coming home intact
only to live like the street, without joy,
fortified with beer and Scotch,
thick with longing,
heavy with inertia.
by Founding Poet Paul Hellweg Copyright © 2014
VWP 2014 First published in Proud To Be 2014
The dead from that war so long ago
continue to haunt.
I wish it were possible to speak with them,
but I know not what language,
English, Vietnamese, French, or perchance
ghosts speak in tongues not understood by the living,
boughs whispering in breeze,
wind wolves sighing through grasslands,
call of redtail hawk.
I wish I could understand,
I wish one would speak to me, maybe
the burned boy who lived nine days, or
the gut-shot PFC called upon to endure twenty minutes,
or the lucky one, killed instantly, one bullet, one heart.
All dwell deep in my skull, reclusive,
not coming forth to tell what I want to know.
Were one to speak up, he might be angry,
having expected a seven-course dinner
but served only a mess of pottage,
resenting, perhaps, my surviving, and
surely questioning the point in coming home intact
only to live like the street, without joy,
fortified with beer and Scotch,
thick with longing,
heavy with inertia.
by Founding Poet Paul Hellweg Copyright © 2014
VWP 2014 First published in Proud To Be 2014
Bio: Paul Hellweg is the Founder of this VietnamWarPoetry.com website.
For more info, please see his bio on the About Us page and on his Bio / War Poetry page.
PaulHellweg.com PaulHellweg.com/poetry
For more info, please see his bio on the About Us page and on his Bio / War Poetry page.
PaulHellweg.com PaulHellweg.com/poetry
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