​​Mekong Delta 

They’re white as rice that wasn’t thrown at us. 
His stack of letters (nineteen-sixty-eight’s
Mail, barely legible) was saved, penned straight, 
Not far from enemy lines.  Infamous: 
The Mekong Delta, toured by curious 
Loved ones, prepared to demonstrate 
Our grief, disarm now, do what liberates, 
Surrendering to the incongruous.  
 His presence here seems reconstructed as 
Those letters fold my world to paper wings. 
Why do brave words demand laments?  I meant 
To re-read, gather them for warmth—whereas 
I light a match, red breast flames releasing 
Angels illegible in their ascent.


by Contributing Poet  LindaAnn LoSchiavo   Copyright © 2024 
VWP 2024     First published in Viet Nam War Generation Journal, Volume 1, No. 2, August 2001
Reprinted in PIF Magazine, Oct. 8, 2001
​

The Wall (Washington, D. C.) 

So many years since a chopstick click of yes:
You promised you’d return. I vowed I’d wait.
Since Uncle Sam’s jets didn’t hesitate,
I kept attacking doubts as I caressed
Your name between thick lines of words compressed,
Hoping my fortune cookies foretold clues,
Separating fatality from you.
One more unending war peaceniks protest.
 Disorienting Nam accounts make news,
Jewels LBJ can wear or finger.  Hopes
Invent what truth would never have spoken.
It’s Immanent Will.   War’s dice throw will choose
Whose name’s between thinned lines.  Love envelops
This wall where a silence has been broken.
 

by Contributing Poet  LindaAnn LoSchiavo   Copyright © 2024 
VWP 2024     First published in Viet Nam War Generation Journal, Volume 1, No. 2, August 2001 

Bio:  LindaAnn LoSchiavo  is a native New Yorker, Elgin Award winner. Memberships: BFS, HWA, SFPA, The Dramatists Guild.
​Forthcoming in 2024: "Apprenticed to the Night" and "Always Haunted: Hallowe'en Poems."

​Poet's Website: LindaAnn Literary