Waiting for my breakfast at the Vanilla Bean in Two Harbors,
I notice a big blond man
with a big loud message on his back:
with a big loud message on his back:
THE TRUE THE
ONES
HEROES ARE
WHO NEVER GOT HOME
HEROES ARE
WHO NEVER GOT HOME
Two red American-flag stripes frame
the profile of a soldier gazing sadly downward.
A spiderlike guard in a high watchtower
waves an AK-47.
Angelic blue eagle’s wings
droop protectively over the words:
the profile of a soldier gazing sadly downward.
A spiderlike guard in a high watchtower
waves an AK-47.
Angelic blue eagle’s wings
droop protectively over the words:
POW
* MIA
The man is sitting close
enough
that I have to hide the notebook page
onto which I’ve jotted the words on his t-shirt.
Only the man’s back is facing me
(broad shoulders, red neck, arrow-straight hairline),
but I can see his brown-haired wife front-on.
With her drawn American-gothic face,
she looks as old as he must be.
My take that he’s an ex-marine may be on-the-mark,
but my malicious thought that he habitually
beats his joyless-looking wife
shows how clichéd my thinking is.—
Likely he’s a kind, compassionate person,
who wouldn’t hesitate to help me out of trouble—
even knowing I’m a lefty.
that I have to hide the notebook page
onto which I’ve jotted the words on his t-shirt.
Only the man’s back is facing me
(broad shoulders, red neck, arrow-straight hairline),
but I can see his brown-haired wife front-on.
With her drawn American-gothic face,
she looks as old as he must be.
My take that he’s an ex-marine may be on-the-mark,
but my malicious thought that he habitually
beats his joyless-looking wife
shows how clichéd my thinking is.—
Likely he’s a kind, compassionate person,
who wouldn’t hesitate to help me out of trouble—
even knowing I’m a lefty.
But I wonder . . .
That shirt looks new today.
The last American soldiers left Vietnam forty years ago,
making it even less reasonable now than when
those old Sylvester Stallone movies were made
to think that American soldiers are still being held,
with or without American government knowledge,
in secret Vietnamese prisons—
That shirt looks new today.
The last American soldiers left Vietnam forty years ago,
making it even less reasonable now than when
those old Sylvester Stallone movies were made
to think that American soldiers are still being held,
with or without American government knowledge,
in secret Vietnamese prisons—
—the righteous
belief that leads
another big ex-marine,
with flowing muscles and Tarzan locks (not blond),
bow and exploding arrows,
to disobey the hypocritical policy of his own government,
and search out the hidden jungle camp
where hundreds of tortured, starved Americans
are waiting for their beloved homeland to rescue them.
After killing the Viet Cong and freeing the POWs,
he confronts perfidious government bureaucrat
Marshall Murdoch with his bowie knife.
All he asks, he says,
is for America to love the POW MIAs
as much as the MIAs themselves—
ever faithful, though betrayed—
will never cease to love America.
another big ex-marine,
with flowing muscles and Tarzan locks (not blond),
bow and exploding arrows,
to disobey the hypocritical policy of his own government,
and search out the hidden jungle camp
where hundreds of tortured, starved Americans
are waiting for their beloved homeland to rescue them.
After killing the Viet Cong and freeing the POWs,
he confronts perfidious government bureaucrat
Marshall Murdoch with his bowie knife.
All he asks, he says,
is for America to love the POW MIAs
as much as the MIAs themselves—
ever faithful, though betrayed—
will never cease to love America.
And isn’t
this immovable rock of an ex-marine
sitting near me in the Vanilla Bean
with his indignant shirt
nothing but a brave bulwark of hope
undefeated in the face
of my smiling-bastard rational assurance
that the American MIAs were all already dead
by the time we left Vietnam?
sitting near me in the Vanilla Bean
with his indignant shirt
nothing but a brave bulwark of hope
undefeated in the face
of my smiling-bastard rational assurance
that the American MIAs were all already dead
by the time we left Vietnam?
