Can still hear the choppers

As they hover over Da Nang

Hoping for a break in the onslaught

During which to descend

To pick up a few bodies

Of fallen, bleeding American soldiers

Sent to liberate a swamp

From the crocodiles & piranhas

That have been feeding there for decades.

Boys from Iowa, Florida & California sent

To shoot small men in black pajamas

And to not trust in appearances

And to ignore drugs & women & vice

In order to kill strangers efficiently.

And the messengers... - really...

A dead Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, the crook,

And Slick Dick, trying to come out looking good

Until a generation departed America spiritually -

No longer believing the politicians or generals

When they justified their wars -

Which continue for decades -

The state of the modern world -

Limited wars, no nukes, so far.

"Apocalypse Now" returns - Gaza, Russia, Iran,

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, & others

While the U.S. & Europe reap the refugees -

Battered & torn & desperate.

They replenish the desire for freedom

And justify, in part, the deaths of our soldiers

In these disparate & futile wars -

As liberty is the warmth of the flame

Of the freedom that unites us.