LINK to listen at Reverbnation: VIETNAM - a song by Hyoomik

VIETNAM

(copyright 2010 Hugh McDonald)

(The song is a "collage" of people I knew, or knew of, who fought in Vietnam)

When I first started on my Odyssey
I took a battle-ship to be my only friend
I followed that coastline
down to the very end

My blue-eyed child across the deep blue sea
she's laughing in the sun but cries for me
she wonders where I've vanished into space
on Saigon streets she shows her daddy's race

With seven of my friends from Newfoundland
I volunteered to fight in Vietnam
No pills can make the mindful heart forget
we were the end that held the bayonet

On every side the friend and foe feel pain
And afterwards we pray for those we've slain
I lit a candle in a church downtown
then up the street I gulped a pitcher down

From Agent Orange my pancreas would fail
I drank the water from a poison pail
The treatments made me sicker sicker still
Survival recommends a bitter pill