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by Gary Jacobson © 2000
All hail the honorable Veteran,
Whether serving as cook, tanker, combat infantryman
Standing hickory tall and proud,
Silvery head held high above the crowd
Eagle eyes burning no longer sharp and keen
Burnt preserving freedom’s light they’ve seen.
A nations veterans put body and soul on the line,
Patrolling the valley of shadowed Hell’s rhyme
Holding in pride now till the end of time
Deep feeling through unforgiven weeping
Remembering times with anticipations of dying
Hell on earth surviving...
Ask a veteran about Hell and High Water
He’ll likely map out coordinates brother
Likely carries brimstone souvenirs in his rucksack
Cause they’ve been there and back
Hells fire still burning in their eye
Never forgetting brothers who still over there lie.
Veterans gave their very best
Preserved sacred values for all the rest
Honoring a land more than life they love
With courage in duty all patriots eyes observe
Valiantly answering the call to arms
Faced an evil world of harms
Paid a deadly price at their country's behest
Ripened thru war’s unholy harvest.
Veterans can talk the talk,
For indeed they walked the walk.
Veteran’s know freedom’s not cheap
For in mortal combat, you sow what you reap
Whether with scythe, sickle, or M-16
Peace grows from freedom warriors from battlefields glean.
Veterans don’t take no guff,
So don’t go putting up that weak stuff.
The fate of the world rested in Veteran hands.
Their sweat preserved these star-spangled lands.
Veterans are the reason Americans walk free
Enjoying life through eyes seeing only liberty.
Veterans learned lessons of war in jungles greening-black
In deserts or icy cold refusing to slack
Fought back rushing adrenaline
Facing their personal Armageddon
Waiting under fire for a virulent foe's attack
Learned to watch a buddy's back.
Veterans humped a sweet and sour perfumed park,
Fending off specters of death, dawn into dark
Rivers of sweat washing their soul
Dancing to death’s grim rock and roll
War made boys before their time grow old
Unless dying a hero in actions swift and bold.
Veterans dreamed of sweethearts to have and to hold
Suffered fevered chills from bones weary cold
Fighting wicked elements wills sapping
Unbearable Heat Suffocating
Monsoon rains spirits Drenching
Enduring rice paddy mud overpowering.
Old Veterans faced enemies preoccupied with their death
Still fear often that final breath
Still gaze on the world with blank stares
That cruel war on their soul still bears
Remembering the battle’s fiery combustion
Bearing Sodom and Gomorrah like conflagration.
America's veterans have seen
Agent Orange's virulent scene
Brought creeping to their families obliteration,
Delayed traumatic stress’s lingering destruction,
Horrendous nerve gas distillation,
Mankind’s Nuclear Holocaust proliferation.
Salute now our veterans who great honor bore
Who with brave distinction peace restore
Who’ve been there/done that, know the score
Who've gone above and beyond to perform that dirty chore
Offering their lives protecting generations from reality of war
A ritual sacrifice venerable veterans vehemently abhor.
Click on patriotic Veteran above for the poem,
"Veterans of Foreign Wars."
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Vietnam Picture tour,"
from the lens and poets pen of a combat infantryman...
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pungent in your nostrils.