Take a man,
then put him alone
Put him 10,000
miles from home
Empty his heart
of all but blood
Make him live
in sweat and mud
This is the
life I have to live
And why my soul
to the devil I give
You "Peace Boys" rank
from your easy-chairs
But you don't
know what it's like over here
You have a ball
without even trying
While over here
men are dying
You burn your
draft cards and march at dawn
Plant your
signs on the White House lawn
You all want to
ban the bomb
There's no real
war here in Vietnam
Use your days
and have your fun
And the refuse
to lift a gun
There's nothing
else for you to do
And I'm
supposed to fight for you
You made me
hear my buddy cry
You made me
watch my buddies die
I saw his arms,
A bloody shred
I heard them
say, "This ones dead"
It's quite a
price he had to pay
He had the guts
to fight and die
He paid the
price, But what did he buy
He bought your
life while giving his
But who gives a
damn what a soldier gives
His wife does,
and probably his sons
But they're
about the only ones.
I picked this poem up on my last few days in
Vietnam
A
fellow soldier had it typed up and left it on a table in Dec 1969