A NOD TO VIET NAM, A KHS CLASSMATE AND MEMORIAL DAY

From our good KHS65 friend Alan Yount, poet, horn player and bandmaster extraodinaire,  comes a new poem which will be honored in an online publication for Memorial Day.  Kudos to Alan for continually succeeding in having his work published!  I have more of his work to post, just recently able to find time for some of my long-neglected fun activities.  You can visit the journal at:  http://militaryexperience.org/as-you-were-vol-1/ and on the 28th you should see Alan's poem leading off the poetry section.  Note the nod to Craig Schmitz, another Kirkwood boy killed in Viet Nam.

On this Memorial Day, as always, wishing the best for all our classmates who have and continue to serve our country.  Thank you for your service!

WHY DOES THE NIGHT LAST SO LONG

  

the same dreams

sometimes happen over and over …

          in high school

          kissing a girl for the first time:

          the porch lights suddenly go on.

at college, after studying all night:

          falling asleep

          I miss the final.

late for an interview:

finally get there

          I find out it’s the wrong room.

my young daughter, who I still smell

her fragrance, from hugging me:

          slips away, and

          disappears down a crowded street.

some nights, floating

up and out of bed

smothered in covers …

          and I can’t cry out.

down here with craig schmitz

(my high school dance band drummer)

who was killed in vietnam:

          we are forever clawing up a muddy hill

          somewhere north of da nang.

it’s three a.m.

you think you’re awake?

or asleep?

a voice tells you:

          there’s nothing

          you can ever go back to again

          and change in your life

          even in your dreams.

why does the night

                             last so long.

 

If you wish to contact Alan, please let me know, I hesitate to publish his contact info online due to horrible increase in spam and annoying phone calls to which we are all subjected these days.