Battlefield Prayer
The dead a-gibbering, and we who ken
Hear “Fuck it! Don’t mean nothin’.” Yeah. Amen.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems by Broadstone Books,
Frankfort, KY and Greenwich Exchange, London, UK 2021.
Movie Stars
Bob Hope, John Wayne, and Martha Raye
Were dupes who knew no other way;
Jane Fonda, too, whose Hanoi hitch
Epitomized protester kitsch.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems by Broadstone Books, Frankfort, KY and Greenwich Exchange, London, UK 2021
Xin Loi
A sucking chest wound’s nature’s way
Of saying, “Jack, this ain’t your day.”
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems by Broadstone Books, Frankfort, KY and Greenwich Exchange, London, UK 2021.
Recruiting, 1966: U.S.M.C.
Esprit de corps and dress blues shill
With bad-ass image, G.I. Bill;
And three years later, what’s he got?
Malaria and jungle rot.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Ghost Story
Long-noses hump through monsoons, the white noise
Filling the soundscape where, with cunning poise,
They glide through jungle triple canopy,
Silent, seeking their main force enemy,
But they are not alone: behind, around
Their small patrol, without the slightest sound
We shadow closely, hidden from their sight,
But sensed—through the long day and longer night.
We are the wraiths of the unburied dead,
The missing, and the lost who prowl instead
Of lying quietly; and we will roam
Until found, buried, peaceful, we go home.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
One Last Night
“Wedding Ring, Wedding Ring, you’re socked in solid.
Choppers may fly tomorrow. Hang in. Over.”
So, a fifth night of monsoons, hunkered down,
Awake all night, a force of NVA
Trying to probe or even overrun
Our ten man team from their positions in
The tree line some one hundred meters south,
Down the rise from where we listen, watch.
If we survive this wet and moonless night,
Still shivering as first light breaks and fussing
Over our last long rations, chicken and rice
Mixed with filth-skimmed water, lighting up
A soggy cigarette, we’ll curse the rear.
“Roger that . . .” Bastard pogues . . . “Hanging in. Out.”
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Letters From Vietnam
I didn’t write them. What was I to say?
I saw a man whose leg was left in shreds
After he tripped a booby-trap today?
Traumatize those who sleep in warm, soft beds
While saying, in their trauma, they’ve no clue
Of my reality, although they think they do?
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Outta Here
Like legionnaires returned to waning Rome,
We quickly learn back in the world’s not home.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
The dead a-gibbering, and we who ken
Hear “Fuck it! Don’t mean nothin’.” Yeah. Amen.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems by Broadstone Books,
Frankfort, KY and Greenwich Exchange, London, UK 2021.
Movie Stars
Bob Hope, John Wayne, and Martha Raye
Were dupes who knew no other way;
Jane Fonda, too, whose Hanoi hitch
Epitomized protester kitsch.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems by Broadstone Books, Frankfort, KY and Greenwich Exchange, London, UK 2021
Xin Loi
A sucking chest wound’s nature’s way
Of saying, “Jack, this ain’t your day.”
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems by Broadstone Books, Frankfort, KY and Greenwich Exchange, London, UK 2021.
Recruiting, 1966: U.S.M.C.
Esprit de corps and dress blues shill
With bad-ass image, G.I. Bill;
And three years later, what’s he got?
Malaria and jungle rot.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Ghost Story
Long-noses hump through monsoons, the white noise
Filling the soundscape where, with cunning poise,
They glide through jungle triple canopy,
Silent, seeking their main force enemy,
But they are not alone: behind, around
Their small patrol, without the slightest sound
We shadow closely, hidden from their sight,
But sensed—through the long day and longer night.
We are the wraiths of the unburied dead,
The missing, and the lost who prowl instead
Of lying quietly; and we will roam
Until found, buried, peaceful, we go home.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
One Last Night
“Wedding Ring, Wedding Ring, you’re socked in solid.
Choppers may fly tomorrow. Hang in. Over.”
So, a fifth night of monsoons, hunkered down,
Awake all night, a force of NVA
Trying to probe or even overrun
Our ten man team from their positions in
The tree line some one hundred meters south,
Down the rise from where we listen, watch.
If we survive this wet and moonless night,
Still shivering as first light breaks and fussing
Over our last long rations, chicken and rice
Mixed with filth-skimmed water, lighting up
A soggy cigarette, we’ll curse the rear.
“Roger that . . .” Bastard pogues . . . “Hanging in. Out.”
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Letters From Vietnam
I didn’t write them. What was I to say?
I saw a man whose leg was left in shreds
After he tripped a booby-trap today?
Traumatize those who sleep in warm, soft beds
While saying, in their trauma, they’ve no clue
Of my reality, although they think they do?
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Outta Here
Like legionnaires returned to waning Rome,
We quickly learn back in the world’s not home.
by Contributing Poet R. L. Barth Copyright © 2024
VWP 2024 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Bio: R. L. Barth enlisted in the Marine Corps (1966-1969).
In Vietnam he was an assistant patrol leader and then patrol leader in the 1st Reconnaissance Bn. (1968-1969).
He has held a Wallace Stagner Fellowship at Stanford University.
His most recent book is Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems.
A chapbook of Vietnam War poems, Ghost Story, is forthcoming.
(Note: “Recruiting,” “Ghost Story” and “Outta Here” will appear in Ghost Story.)
He lives in Edgewood, KY, with his wife, Susan.
In Vietnam he was an assistant patrol leader and then patrol leader in the 1st Reconnaissance Bn. (1968-1969).
He has held a Wallace Stagner Fellowship at Stanford University.
His most recent book is Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems.
A chapbook of Vietnam War poems, Ghost Story, is forthcoming.
(Note: “Recruiting,” “Ghost Story” and “Outta Here” will appear in Ghost Story.)
He lives in Edgewood, KY, with his wife, Susan.
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