Poetry+2

Names: Nicole Mertz and Lana Ploshchansky
= = =//John Irving and the Vietnam War://=

John Irving:
==== is a writer who was a participant in the Viet Nam War. He was 21 when he fought and he was a pilot for cobra attack helicopters. At first when he came back from Viet Nam he had a lot of nightmares, but his wife’s love and the passage of time finally soothed away his nightmares. He was still 21 when he flew from Arizona jungles of Ecuador and Bolivia to the Gulf of Mexico. When he was 31 he flew worldwide from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. When he flew to Viet Nam again that brought back the nightmares and one method of helping him with those nightmares was the psychiatrist recommended writing. He wrote dozens of poems and his autobiography is the result of that therapy. ====

His Poetry:
 ==__ The Map __==


 Time passes,  Wounds close, pain dulls, As scars heal.

Once again I'm tricked Into believing It's Finally Over.

Then my eyes, unbidden, Grasp that ' J ' shaped Coastline in Asia, On a map of the world.

Where were you when the first man died? Where were you when his family cried?

Once again these names Draw me closer, ever closer, So close I can't see them Without my glasses.

Once again these places, That time, jump out Clutching my back Thrilling my neck.

Whoa ! Stop ! Once again, again the room spins as I flash back anew to that huge airport where I first came to the Nam.

Senses assaulted, hot Hot HOT, burned dung smell. Humid as a steam bath, Fetid as a swamp.

Where were you, when an 18 year old boy left for Vietnam and returned with eyes 10 years older than his 19 year old body?

Can you understand what those eyes reveal about places and things you who are protected never have to know?

CRACK ! "Incoming !" Sonic boom 122 mike mike Katushkas streak inches overhead, 50 pound warheads explode so hard my soul is shaken.

Where were you when we began taking rocket fire casualties just 10 minutes after arriving in South Viet Nam?

Where were you when one of my men on his second day in-country was killed on his 18th Birthday?

An Kke, Quin Nhon First fire fight. Top says "Your buddy's dead !" That can't be right !

Where were you when my best friend triggered a landmine then died in my arms, covering me with body parts, and bone fragments?

Where were you when I arrived in that war torn land, age just twenty-one?

Doing what my government asked me to do and what my fellow Americans expected me to do.

Pleiku, Kontum, "Enemy in the Wire ! !" Outgoing, incoming, "The Nam's on fire !"

There! on the map The A Shau Valley ! GOD! Grunts're dead at A Shau, We fought all week.

Where were you those long, dark, and frightening nights when we sat in the mud and the rain waiting for the enemy?

Ban Me Thuot, Nha Trang, Got shot down, I flew again that afternoon, Got shot down again !

Where were you when our men turned up missing, became P-Oh-Ws? Seventy-nine Prisioners of War have been seen in Asia since 1972.

2,096 Americans are still missing, un-account-ed for. Why aren't you there now, searching, while our men are STILL missing?

Khe Sanh, Quang Tri, Hue, Phu Bai. Marble Mountain, Da Nang Nui Ba Dinh. //

V ////inh// Long, My Tho, "He's shot through the head !" Rach Gia, Chi Lang, So Many Friends Dead !

Where were you when we arrived back on American soil? Did you curse and throw rotten eggs at us?

Why aren't you at the funerals we go to for our comrades who poisoned, continue to fall to dioxin and Agent Orange?

58,229 Americans died in Viet Nam. Since the war ended 150,000 vets have committed suicide. Why aren't you howling in pain?

Why do starving homeless Vets sleep in cardboard boxes, while criminals get free medical care, wholesome food and shelter?

Why do prisioners have huge law libraries and get to sue the government? Why do we spend billions on foreign aid while denying Vets adequate medical care?

Where are you as Veterans' rights are threatened every day? Where are you when the V.A. man denies our benefits and claims?

I held myself together and kept the wolf so far from your door, that you and others can pretend that the wolf never existed.

Where are you now when a sound, or a smell, or a dream touches that part of me buried so deep that I wake up screaming?

Whoa ! Stop !

They're just names On a stupid map and It was so long ago....

Why can't I stop crying?

© 1998

=
In this poem he is talking about how hard it was for him to revisit a place years later that he was at war in. He was saying how the memories and wounds were just closing, and then he goes back to Vietnam and they all reopen again. He ends up reliving everything that he went through while there as well as stuff he found out after being home again. John also thinks about what people after being in the war have to go through, and how not everything is fair for the veterans even after they have fought for their country. ======