From Vietnam Veterans Against the War, http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=3580
Download PDF of this full issue: v48n1.pdf (140.6 MB) |
Finally the battle ends
Last week all light and noise
Tonight a night like before; dark, quiet
I sit now in silence, troubled
Thinking of life, full of danger,
That echoed off the walls
Remembering the keys of the teletype
Clicking with fury, announcing
The beginning of the Tet Offensive
From my window the sky lit,
As never before, all reds and yellows
The hooch shaking with noiseless vibration
The Star Spangled Banner sprang to mind
Rockets red glare
Bombs bursting air
The teletype clacking again
A classified message requiring
Immediate action, off to HQ
Scurrying across the compound
Rockets, mortars exploding
Outside the compound
Arriving at HQ, greeted by the Duty Officer
No flight out of Ton Sun Nhut
Should be leaving in two days, guess not
Retuning across the compound
Under bright lights of flares
And a rain of tracers
Arriving to the relative safety
Of my hooch, my home
Those past peaceful 11 months
Home again
There are those nights
When darkness is blinding
Now the echo can be heard
Just a memory... the room is silent
Shit; I was scared
— David Sandgrund