Suppose I’ve been in the Army
all my life and suppose
I’ve just gotten orders for Vietnam,
the place that no one’s talking about
just yet, the place officers go to train
the side we’re on, and I’m afraid
of what I’ll be asked to say and do, though
I’ve been training all my life to do this,
even though they think I am the man they want.
Say all this is what I’m thinking
when I’m in a helicopter, ammo strapped
to my chest, rifle in my hands, sweat trickling down
the small of my back, and suppose
later that month my troop
is ambushed, all of us go down
in the middle of the jungle, and I am 26
and never meet my wife and never see
Chicago and never have a daughter, here in this room
imagining that she is her father
as he went off to war for the first time
the age that she is now.
Circumstance
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
What is happening to migrants in courtrooms across the country is a complete embarrassment to the justice system and an affront to human dignity.
Being a kid in the summer is all about existing in an eternal present moment, a feeling of freedom and potential that it will never go away.
Father Thomas Hennen, vicar general of the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, has been appointed Bishop of Baker, Oregon.
My writing during these past five years is filled with memories of my long journey with God over a lifetime; but very significantly, it is the expression of my prayer at this later time of my life.