*If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you love them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.
— Major Michael Davis O’Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
Enjoy the rest of the day, everybody.
*[via The Society for the Preservation of Clue]
Thanks for this poem – it’s beautiful and says exactly what I would have were I not in a fog of post-B-Day party stupidity and perhaps able to come up with anything suitable – I’ve reposted the poem with credit to you (hope you don’t mind).