The h2g2 Poem - Hikaru Poet
Created | Updated Apr 28, 2004
Vietnam Memory
"IT'S OVER"
screamed the May 1, 1975 Stars and Stripes
to my 14-year-old eyes in Tokyo,
with a blood-red headline
over that embassy rooftop photo.
"It ain't over,"
mumbled a thirty-something veteran
a decade later as I tutored him
at a restaurant study session
while he tried to finish college,
knowing the next loud noise
would send him diving under a table.
"It ain't over,"
whispered the M.I.A./P.O.W. flags,
fluttering everywhere
under the red, white and blue.
"It ain't over,"
cried the wall of names, that big black gash
that brought the wound home to the Beltway.
"It ain't over,"
protested the Hmong diaspora,
mountain people of Laos that helped us then,
now scattered like so many dominoes,
some transplanted to our amber plains,
others still waiting to cross the shining sea.
"It ain't over,"
complained a weekend warrior,
learning that her 12-month assignment to Iraq
just got extended,
so she needs to reschedule her wedding.
"It ain't over,"
argued the American voter,
as George and John and their people
pitched papers and spun tales
about what they did and where they were
thirty-some years ago,
testing our Vietnam memory.
Nope, I guess it ain't over.
The Stars and Stripes don't always get it right.
But the rest of the world could've told us that
if we'd been listening.
War and Protest - the US in Vietnam (1972-1975) - The final entry
in a series on the Vietnam War.
