The End of the Viet Nam War Is a Lie

by Mushroom Montoya

29 March is the anniversary

of the "official",  

not the real,

end of the Viet Nam war.

 

I stirred my coffee

this morning

with a U.S. Navy spoon,

that overflowed
with angry cubes
of bitterness.

Each one bore the label:

Viet Nam War

Brought to you

By the Military Industrial Complex

Each sip of my bitter coffee

bled memories

that I didn’t want to open.

 

We were still firing rockets

from our ship

That December,

nine months after,

After the fucking war
was “officially” declared
over.

It was a damn lie.

Each sip of my bitter coffee

cut slits in my gut
setting my mood for the day: 

Capital P

for PISSED.

 

But it is far more than just pissed.

My cousin died over there.

My shipmate died over there.
Hundreds of thousands of mothers
And fathers grieve for their dead children,

 

Who died over there,

 

Dead children whose deaths

and suffering succeeded in NOTHING

but making the Military Industrial Complex

richer,

While the whole world

became poisoned with Agent Orange

And a misdirected hatred

of those who were sent to serve.

While those of us
Who served there
still grieve
For the parts of us
that got killed there.