The Lifetime Year by Gary Jacobson © May 2007 Remember the eternities of a lifetime year That birthplace of unsettling fear Changing young boys brave and strong and clean Though only nineteen... Sent far from home to fight For a nation’s sovereign right Fell into brutish war That good men say they abhor Where each step can be your last one Born again under Vietnam’s sun in the land of the gun. Remember where was shed the unspeakable tear Nevermore to forget brothers left there Left nourishing a verdant jungle, all worldly care Remembering shadows that go bump in the night Exploding forever on senses awful fright Riding hueys through dawning light Steel war horses breathing fire to inspire Through sweltering dust of Phan Thiet Through the agent orange sunset Wondering what each new day will beget... Calamitous the omen Though ... it don’t mean nuthin’ Just turn away to the next eve of destruction Where evil in air around you plays Three-hundred-sixty-five nights ... three-hundred-sixty-five days Dreaming feats in prophetic night threatening Foreboding chilling auspices thrilling Come back always to bloodletting killing So, think about something else Weary heart’s racing the beating pulse. Travel back to alien lands Again walk with blood-stained hands Where you lost the boy, but found the man Humping deep dark jungles of Vietnam Where you marched with hellish premonition Bartering innocence with death in unholy arbitration Through smoke and fire crescendo of mortars The exploding crack of rifles making men martyrs Laugh at foreshadowing doom Death enshrouding the jungle gloom. Cling desperately for life to brothers Pray desperately to mothers Scan every bush, snipers in the treeline, mines in the ground Struggle to hear every out-of-place sound Blood flowing in veins like ice Embroiled in the service of sacrifice Pray to God ... curse God Straining within and without To hear the primal shout Painfully aware of each slightest movement Trusting life to war’s armament. Vietnam severely impacts all of life Rifling the mind with PTSD strife Still upsetting life values once thought dear Violence to every night for the rest of life sear Filling every thought with rivers of sweat Still humping combat gear filled with fomenting regret Feel still that combat rage Too often saving burdensome life to pain assuage Once again beside brothers angels cannot keep... Can you tell me why I still can’t get to sleep? Struggle with everything in you to survive To arise from this hell-hole to 'the world' alive Ghosts freed from lingering guilt Cruel war upon its warriors built Wondering why you too aren’t back there Beside moldering buddies in a foreign jungle lair Back there giving rise to malicious discontent Duffels full of life’s altering moment Blistering contagion in shadowy portent Planted without relent to past and present torment. My heart will always beaucoup memories hide Yet forever I’ll foreshadowing bide War’s deadly poisoned bane The Nam’s horrific pain Nam's drumming thunder bringing singing rain Men trying to kill you again and again Remember that fated year of the protestor’s jeer When you got back to America’s hatefully despising leer Given those forever searching still Vietcong to kill... If you approve of this site, please show your approval by clicking above graphic... to take you to the voting page for "Vietnam Picture Tour," as a top military site! Click choppers for a ride to Vietnam Picture tour," from lens and poets pen of a combat infantryman to leave the sweet and sour taste of "the Nam" pungent in your nostrils. Please Be Kind and my Guestbook sign, That I Might Know You Passed This Way! Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook For more Vietnam Poems, click the grunt to take you to my poetry index, each poem filled with action pictures.