Poems to Remember
By Jan C. Scruggs
A friend of mine, Dr. Mary C. Rorro, sent these to me. Dr. Rorro is a Psychiatrist and author of these short but beautifully-written poems. They will give you a feel for what it was like to be in Vietnam. Of course, there is no way to fully experience the events unless you had been there, but these poems offer insight into the emotions all soldiers felt during that time:
Tunnel Rats
I slithered down dank
tunnels of Cu Chi
my body small
mad muscles lean
The mission:
search and destroy
my 45’ll snuff out
Charlie’s boys
Not only guns and rifles
do I need to slip, but
the poisoned fangs
of Cong’s punji sticks
I turn the corner facing
jet eyes darting
back at me
Fear would be Chuck’s
fatal flaw
One breath’s wait cost him
my pistol’s first draw
A second VC was
prepared to click
his Soviet special sought
to fetch me with
its searing pitch, but I’ll
be damned if I’ll feel its
slam in this Devil’s Ditch
A bullet missed my
grime-painted face
in this crazed claustrophobic
space
But today was not
my day to die
I would live
for another dive
deep into war’s
dark divide
Bunker Bill
His thin window pane rattles
against its howling frame
that is how he knows winter
solstice has arrived again
Winter wind’s glacial breath
chills his aging bones
Bill burrows into earth’s surface
rarely reemerging where
danger may be lurking
trembling hands seeking to cheat
death once dug deeper foxholes
as mortar rounds blew.
overhead
he fled to a bunker
his only sure shelter from
Vietnam’s Helter Skelter
still, no man can pull Bill
from his new fortified bunker
his prisoning perimeter protects
him from a soldier’s strife
yet war’s wounds unhealed
have robbed him of his life
Field of Dreams
Flowerless fields
verdant and spare
countless crosses
so many to bear
three lines define
soldiers and sons
chapters unwritten
books undone
After reading these poems, I felt emotions I haven’t felt for a while. They made me think of what I went through in Vietnam, the things I saw, and the people who never made it back home. The sacrifices bravely displayed by my fellow service members should never be forgotten. This is the reason why our construction of The Education Center at The Wall is so vital, and why VVMF will continue to urge your support until it is completed.
Go to www.buildthecenter.org for more information.
How sensitively you seem to have captured the emotions, fears and survival instincts of those brave men and women in your beautiful poems. You are obviously a person who listens carefully and cares deepy about these veterans. Wonderful!