It Doesn't Feel Right Unless I've Got a Gun

It Doesn’t Feel Right Unless I’ve Got a Gun


I tried to sneak
up on my friend
the greeter at
the big blue box
he turned around
reminded me he’d
been to Viet Nam
I wondered how
many more men
I can’t sneak up on
who’ve been to war
permanently trained
to hear footsteps
whether in the mind
or real
terminally tense and
ready to fight
to kill
war over
friends buried
wounds healed
screams echoing like a
hyacinth macaw covered in napalm
burning in the jungle
burning in the brain


Randolph Nesbitt

Posted over on Poets Against The War