Joe's Denim
Lisa wore her brother’s Levi jacket
wherever she went after hearing Joe’d
been shot in Vietnam & died a hero
stepping on a punji stick, allegedly
defending comrades & the American
way of life in Southeast Asia.
The Levi collar smelled of salt, sweat
& Aqua Velva while the rest of the jacket
reeked of cherry pipe tobacco—aromas
Lisa deeply inhaled every time she grew
teary recalling how he’d hoist her on his
shoulder at every Queen concert they attended.
Cloaked in Joe’s denim jacket, she approached
the altar at both her weddings: the first to a male
her brother would have befriended, the second
a female—Lisa’s mirror image & dream lover--
yet neither spouse filled the void Joe left behind:
private thoughts & actions shared only with Joe.
She turned her attention to Vietnam war films
from The Deer Hunter to Full Metal Jacket, Platoon
to Apocalypse Now & Coming Home, to empathize
with Joe’s confused patriotic passion & reoccurring
nightmare of people screaming, burning, fleeing
napalm bombs all in the name of a police action.
by Contributing Poet Sterling Warner Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Wooden Walls
Dedicated to The Vietnam Veterans at SJSU
--Tôi không có lựa chọn
Wooden walls ascend—climb two stories high, house
tar stained tin ashtrays for vet’s hand rolled cigarettes;
an asbestos ceiling hangs tall above billowing smoke
curling for endurance, passing through rings that seem
afloat in every direction—each bearing the signature of a
war weary veteran, recalling memories best forgot in
foxhole hell or napalm nightmares--
scars that will fester…burns that will sear
feverish minds and scorched skeletal structures eternally:
Nóng quá, nóng quá!
Voices heard within wooden walls resound like phantom lieutenants
clamoring through jungle decay, above mortars shells and gunfire--
vets who left families as liberators and returned home invisible,
unwelcomed heroes, outsiders, malcontents, and junkies--
Tôi không hiểu! Tôi không hiểu!
The past’s never lost in the VA present: Tôi sợ hãi; Tôi sợ hãi.
still soldiers, they assemble like motley medieval Knights Templar,
dismiss shell-shocked stories—misguided military quest details,
favoring frequent pilgrimages to physical therapists, psychoanalysts,
marriage counselors, and professors who try piecing dysfunctional lives together
Wooden walls sheltered vets like a landlocked battleship;
brushing shoulders with Tower Hall where spectral Vincent Price emerged
meticulous, mysterious against bellicose ivy smothering the gothic monolith,
lecturing on art, disappearing into shadows, reemerging amid rainbows;
on his far right, the termite-ridden barricade also breathed new life into
muted conversationalists, Vietnam Vets reentering society enjoying
extended VA benefits for South East Asian freedom fighters;
lodged in twisted half desks, they’d carve names, companies, epithets
chronicling forty additional hours to the GI Bill, respite from reoccurring gloom.
Tôi bị lạc! Tôi bị lạc!
by Contributing Poet Sterling Warner Copyright © 2022
VWP 2022 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Lisa wore her brother’s Levi jacket
wherever she went after hearing Joe’d
been shot in Vietnam & died a hero
stepping on a punji stick, allegedly
defending comrades & the American
way of life in Southeast Asia.
The Levi collar smelled of salt, sweat
& Aqua Velva while the rest of the jacket
reeked of cherry pipe tobacco—aromas
Lisa deeply inhaled every time she grew
teary recalling how he’d hoist her on his
shoulder at every Queen concert they attended.
Cloaked in Joe’s denim jacket, she approached
the altar at both her weddings: the first to a male
her brother would have befriended, the second
a female—Lisa’s mirror image & dream lover--
yet neither spouse filled the void Joe left behind:
private thoughts & actions shared only with Joe.
She turned her attention to Vietnam war films
from The Deer Hunter to Full Metal Jacket, Platoon
to Apocalypse Now & Coming Home, to empathize
with Joe’s confused patriotic passion & reoccurring
nightmare of people screaming, burning, fleeing
napalm bombs all in the name of a police action.
by Contributing Poet Sterling Warner Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Wooden Walls
Dedicated to The Vietnam Veterans at SJSU
--Tôi không có lựa chọn
Wooden walls ascend—climb two stories high, house
tar stained tin ashtrays for vet’s hand rolled cigarettes;
an asbestos ceiling hangs tall above billowing smoke
curling for endurance, passing through rings that seem
afloat in every direction—each bearing the signature of a
war weary veteran, recalling memories best forgot in
foxhole hell or napalm nightmares--
scars that will fester…burns that will sear
feverish minds and scorched skeletal structures eternally:
Nóng quá, nóng quá!
Voices heard within wooden walls resound like phantom lieutenants
clamoring through jungle decay, above mortars shells and gunfire--
vets who left families as liberators and returned home invisible,
unwelcomed heroes, outsiders, malcontents, and junkies--
Tôi không hiểu! Tôi không hiểu!
The past’s never lost in the VA present: Tôi sợ hãi; Tôi sợ hãi.
still soldiers, they assemble like motley medieval Knights Templar,
dismiss shell-shocked stories—misguided military quest details,
favoring frequent pilgrimages to physical therapists, psychoanalysts,
marriage counselors, and professors who try piecing dysfunctional lives together
Wooden walls sheltered vets like a landlocked battleship;
brushing shoulders with Tower Hall where spectral Vincent Price emerged
meticulous, mysterious against bellicose ivy smothering the gothic monolith,
lecturing on art, disappearing into shadows, reemerging amid rainbows;
on his far right, the termite-ridden barricade also breathed new life into
muted conversationalists, Vietnam Vets reentering society enjoying
extended VA benefits for South East Asian freedom fighters;
lodged in twisted half desks, they’d carve names, companies, epithets
chronicling forty additional hours to the GI Bill, respite from reoccurring gloom.
Tôi bị lạc! Tôi bị lạc!
by Contributing Poet Sterling Warner Copyright © 2022
VWP 2022 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Bio: Sterling Warner is an award-winning author, poet, and Evergreen Valley College English Professor, Sterling Warner’s works have appeared many literary magazines, journals, and anthologies including Trouvaille Review, Shot Glass Journal, Danse Macabre, Ekphrastic Review, and Sparks of Calliope. Warner’s collections of poetry include Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento Mori, Serpent’s Tooth, Flytraps, and Cracks of Light: Pandemic Poetry and Fiction 2019-2022—as well as Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories. Currently, Warner writes, hosts/participates in poetry readings, and enjoys retirement in Washington.
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