The Vietnam vet
stares at the wide
Forty-two-inch TV
screen.
Every so often he
steals a glance
At an article in an
old magazine.
He rolls his chair
across the room
To look out the
window. The sun is shining.
He hears a voice on
the TV say,
"Every cloud
has a silver lining."
Shaking his head, he
wheels himself
Back across the room
to see
What is going on in
the world.
Elections? Storms? A
shooting spree?
Memorial Day parades
are occurring;
On gravestones
wreaths are being laid.
On one channel
hundreds of photos
Of fallen soldiers
are being displayed.
Then he hears a news
report:
More U.S. troops to
Afghanistan.
He sits in quiet
disbelief,
Listening to the
news anchorman.
Looking down at his
lifeless legs,
Again he can only
shake his head.
His heart sinks, so he changes the channel
To watch another
program instead.
The words, however,
continue to haunt him
And echo through his
war-weary brain:
"More
troops…more troops…"
To Afghanistan? This
is insane!
"How can so
many commentators
Look and sound so
unconcerned?"
He asks himself,
over and over.
"In all these
years, what have we learned?"
Depressed, he turns
the TV off
And sits alone, lost
in his thoughts,
His heart racing,
his hands trembling,
His eyes tearing,
his stomach in knots.
Only those in the
battle zones
See what they'd
never seen before--
Things that will
surely haunt them forever--
The unspeakable
horrors of war.
(5-26-17) By Bob B
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