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11.11 (poem)

By Michael Nelson

I wept at my wedding which was two weeks before I left for Vietnam

I wept when my grandfather died when I was in Vietnam
and I wasn't allowed to go home for his funeral

I wept when I saw so many abandoned children in a DaNang orphange...
most of them fathered by American soldiers

I wept when I returned home

I wept when my son was born

I wept when I saw Picasso's Guernica

I wept when my best friend told me he had cancer

I wept when the World Trade Center collapsed

I wept when I walked into the Louvre for the first time

I wept when we invaded Iraq

I wept after seeing Fahrenheit 9/11

I wept at my son's wedding

I always weep when the national anthem is played at the Olympics

I always weep at the Vietnam Memorial

I always weep on Veterans Day

—Michael Nelson