A Vietnam War Hero

If you judge him do not judge him harshly or why judge him at all Since the darkest of memories are his to recall Many of his comrades around him under gunfire did fall Their names to be seen on War Memorial wall. Back in the late sixties in distant Vietnam He fought in an unpopular war as a young man He received an honourable discharge from the army and a medal for bravery And he now is an ageing man in poverty. He never fathered children or never had a wife And alcohol has become his sole comfort in life Haunted by his dark war memories life for him an Earthly Hell Had he not been in Vietnam at all in life he may have done well. His war medal for bravery he has misplaced or lost The two years he spent in Vietnam to him has come at a great cost He looks far older than his sixty three years thin and stooped and gray War leaves it's mark on it's survivors it does seem that way.