Warmemory

What if we remember

What if we go back

What if we can't clear

Our minds

What if it hurts too much

Only the troubled souls

Can hear screaming in their heads

Helicopters thrashing the air

Flattening grass

Flashing lights

Blades like crazy

Whirling knives

What if we can't forget

What if we just

Can't stand the torment

What if we lose our minds

Millions of plastic toys

Raining from the sky

Amputating tiny feet

What if that child was mine

What if we just can't determine

Nightmares from real life

What if revisiting feels

Like we never left the place

What if we carry it with us

Wherever........

Till we're dead

Willy Bach (c) 1991

Footnote: CRAS (Citizen Reality Avoidance Syndrome), it turns out, is much more widespread than VSCRAS (Veterans Stressed by Citizen Reality Avoidance Syndrome), and much more deadly, to other people’s children.

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Bill Distler served in Vietnam, he is a member of VFP Chapter 111, Bellingham