Memorial 

All is not healed
There was a violent rupture
Of the body
Of the mind
Of the soul
A tearing at the fabric of love.
 
The memorial itself
does not heal,
it is the heel of
the man’s hand
on the wall where
the name etched
in love translates
into peace.
 
 
This poem is about the Vietnam War Memorial,
specifically referencing a picture of a man with his hand against the Vietnam Memorial wall,
​the reflection, and the names etched on the wall.


by Contributing Poet  Jennifer Lemming   Copyright © 2023 
VWP 2023     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com  

Bio:  Jennifer Lemming  moved to Bismarck, North Dakota 8 years ago, following her husband’s
nursing job relocation. She won Grand Prize for her poetry in the Dancing Poetry Contest in
2019. Most recently she was a judge for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards (SAWA) North
Dakota region in Winter 2021. Her most recent blog post about living in North Dakota can be
found by the host’s site, Hudson Valley Writers Guild, hvwg.org. She hikes, kayaks, reads, and
writes in the Great Plains, mostly in North Dakota.