You Don't Know Me
by Gary Jacobson © 1999

You don’t know me anymore...
I’m not the same boy
Who walked out that front door.
I’ve gone and done my patriotic chore
Felt war’s slings and arrows along the way
Bartered childish innocence in “the Nam”
The devil sure to pay.

I’ve borne witness to death and killing
Horrors imbedded forevermore chilling.
I’ve tasted my hot and sticky blood...
Groveled for life in heat and mud
Floundered with mud
And raging blood
Running into my eye...
Felt surely any minute I’d die
You wonder now why I cry!
Of a year of yesterdays still ask why...

No, you don’t know me any more.
I’m no longer the same “boy next door”
With my future shining brightly before me
In naive innocence "the world" to see.
I’ve borne witness to the evil
Goodly men should abhor
Walked the valley of shadows blinding dark
Patrolled the “killing field park”
Felt fear pungent and spicy on my skin
Battled for freedom's life to win.

No, you don’t know me any more.
I've traveled too far from humanities shore.
Hate like tangy pepper runs in my veins
A weary tongue echoing passing sad refrains
Still out of step,
Still out of rhyme,
Still carried in primal screams back in time
Forever fighting in a soul inflamed
Forevermore evading memories battle adhered
By a Godless war seared...

No, you don't know me anymore...
For there's a hole eternally in my soul
That wasn't there before...

I welcome your comments. Email me at

Click the Combat Infantry Badge
to go to my Vietnam Poetry index,
each poem with more action
graphics and Pictures

CLICK TO VISIT...

Through pictures and poetry take a walk in "the park"
with the 1st Air Cavalry on combat patrol. Experience
the chilling reality that will give you
the taste of "the Nam" on your tongue,
leave the pungent smell of "the Nam" in your nostrils,
imbed textures of "the Nam" in your brain
as though you walked beside me in combat.