Veteran

He was a poor boy from Jacksonville, Florida

raised on dirt roads

cut his teeth on Jim Crow.

He was first in his family

to graduate high school

As a senior he stood in front of

the recruiter’s table at school

They made it easy for the Army to

pick its prey

‘Draft’ and ‘Vietnam’ were the

most feared words in most people’s vocabulary

So when the officer said,

‘If ya’ volunteer, you won’t go to ‘Nam’

who could resist?

Two months later, he was on a bus

to basic training.

Five months after that, he was on a plane

to Southeast Asia.

Suddenly the poor boy from Jacksonville, Florida

who was raised on dirt roads,

who cut his teeth on Jim Crow,

was now being told that

the VietCong-

not white supremacy,

Was the enemy.

He saw things and probably did things

that he would never speak of to anyone.

And he sent Converse sneakers back home to his nephew

Every color, too.

America didn’t wave flags and wear yellow ribbons

for Vietnam vets

They got tomatoes and jeers instead

So a whole generation of men,

Some women too

came back and buried

their service and their trauma

like the bodies they left behind.

The poor boy from Jacksonville, Florida

who was raised on dirt roads,

who cut his teeth on Jim Crow,

went on to raise a family

And they didn’t know much

except for the fact that

he hated mosquitoes,

didn’t like when things got too loud,

and sometimes had bad headaches.

And then there was time when

he cut the television off and walked out

of the room

When the news reporter went back

to visit the girl-now a woman,

who ran through her village

naked and covered with napalm.

His family didn’t know much

But they did know that he went to work every single day

And they went on summer vacation every year, too.

He was a poor boy from Jacksonville, Florida

who was raised on dirt roads

who cut his teeth on Jim Crow

I am his daughter

Two generations removed from illiteracy

who now teaches others to read

He survived the jungle

so that I might have life.

He never got that hero’s welcome

but I wear a yellow ribbon in my heart.

I don’t know much

and may not ever know

but one thing is certain-

You may thank him for his service

I thank him for being my dad.