Right Now and Forever

LeftExchange Right Now and Forever "I thought this poem (and possibly several more over the next few daze) would be appropriate both to honor the service of veterans but also recognize the internal wounds that are the invisible, yet inevitable result of military service, especially in a combat zone, and why it is the duty of citizens to question the reasons for their governments to send sons and daughters into harm's way". - Mark Foley

For Veterans Day, November 11th, 2001

(A probable conversation in a fictional situation in an actual neighborhood bar)

Right now
.....I am not a poet.
.....I am not a worker.
Right now
.....I am not your new neighbor
.....or patient or teacher.
Right now
.....I am someone who hopes
.....to have you not run away
.....when I say
Right now
.....I am a Vietnam Veteran.

But if you must ask,
.....Don’t ask me if I killed anyone.
.....Don’t ask me if I have any scars.
But if you do ask about Vietnam
.....I will hold the experience to your head....

I was never proud of the part I played,
but now I am no longer ashamed to say
.....I am a Vietnam Vet.
And every day, for me, is Vietnam Veterans Day.
Because Vietnam, for me, will never go away.

-by Mark S. Foley (in 1984)

Go to Mark's Poetry

Go to Synergy's Veterans Day Page 2001

Synergy Home