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