Lawrence Hall
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Indochine - An Anniversary of Sorts
On the 26th of October 1970 I returned from 18th months in Viet-Nam and a brief side-trip into Cambodia. I was literally just a boy off the farm when I went, and was still quite young when I wrote the following artless lines, with their conventional allusions, forced rhymes, and usage errors, on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th anniversaries. Perhaps there is one from the 1st anniversary, but I can’t find it. Well, we are all are looking for something most days: a poem, truth, meaning, or some other trifle.
…the war – the frights…the smell of h.e., the horribly smashed men still moving like half-crushed beetles, the…corpses…all this shows rarely and faintly in memory…and often seems to have happened to someone else.
-C. S. Lewis, “Guns and Good Company,” Surprised by Joy
26 October 1972
The pecans are falling now
Onto the court-house lawn
Geese fly overhead, southbound
Misty dusk and chilly dawn
Two year from Viet-Nam
Two eternities from the Vam Co Tay
Elections now, and speeches
And I guess I’ll have my say
But the finality briefly denied me
Found many another man
And they’re not here for elections
And Autumn on the land
26 October 1973
I sit and smoke my pipe and think
Of things that I have seen
Easter seals and steering wheels
And jungle hot and green
I sit and smoke my pipe and ponder
The imponderable of God and man
The evening star over a flare-lit war
And souls as grains of sand
I sit and smoke my pipe and mourn
For the murdered
Many miles, and three years today
From the muddy, ****** waters
Of the Vam Co Tay
26 October 1974
Many miles
And four years today
From the muddy, ****** waters
Of the Vam Co Tay
All the death-hurt eases
And dreams are quieter now
But the hurting never ceases
And I can’t see when it will, or how
Four Octobers
Four Autumns today
From rain drizzling on the slimy banks
Of the Van Co Tay
“Go and make the world safe for democracy –
Like we did in 1917,” my aged ancestor said
Dear old man, he never lived to know
That sort of thing is dead
Grim memories
Of flare-lit nights and steaming days
Of men dying screaming
On the Vam Co Tay
The finality briefly denied me
Found many another man
And they’re not seeing the wild geese flying
Or Autumn on the land
Many miles
And four years today
From the muddy, ****** waters
Of the Vam Co Tay