My Cream Colored Psychedelic Flashback May 30, Memorial Day 2o16

Hadn't thought of writing anything for Memorial Day this year. I have in the past and they are usually something to do with Vietnam. This a poem that I started back in 2oo9. It's stayed pretty much the same all these years. Did a little bit of fine tuning on it from time to time. But it hasn't changed much. Says what I want it to say about war and in particular about my time in Vietnam.

My Cream Colored Psychedelic Flashback

Tumble dried in memories

flashing back to
acid coated tracers
tracking jungle-booted steps
across a stoned-hinge reality...

                                                *"It's getting near dawn..."

Cream's psychedelic shadow

crackling over a portable radio...
blue stained skies draped
in a white cloud cloaks...
rumbling thunder spouting
black diesel smoke...

                                              "When lights close their tired eyes..."

faces green with camouflage,

burnt suntan brown beneath
flak jackets, stale breath
and bubblegum...
way, way back
when we were young,
dumb and full of
deadly dreams...

                                              "I'll soon be with you my love..."

rolling along Highway Nine

adrenaline rush bouncing
up and down my fragile spine
in the bed of a Marine green 12X...
Big Daddy G behind me
with his salty slight of hand
magically fires-up his dovetailed joint
against a sandpaper wind...
suck it down, brother, pass it around...
hitting on heaven in my cupped hand
and... it's one small toke for man,
two giant tokes for mankind and...
suddenly...

                                              "To give you my dawn surprise..."

48 hours earlier

stranded at LAX,
tongue-tied to each other,
my fingers tangled deep
in your blond hair,
the soft flesh of your arms
surrounds me...
a second skin...
never wanting to let go...
your kiss tattooed
upon my lips,
your gentle whisper
in my ear,
"I love you... forever...!"
                                              "I'll be with you darling soon..."

lock and load!

click, click, click!
every swinging Rickie pops
a fresh clip into his M-16,
feeling lean, feeling mean...
the sun drilling tiny holes
through the top of my helmet,
the dust thicker
as the convoy slithers
out of Saigon
like a metal python...
                                             " I'll be with you when the stars start falling..."

as the city gives way

the jungle green and dark
blossoms before us like
an open wound...
the convoy picks up speed
didi mauing like a mother...
lush rice paddies,
napalm skittish mama sans
knee high in mud
nothing but a black pajama blur...
old grunts in ratty utilities,
head tripping glances
over their shoulders
listening with their dead eyes
scrutinizing every tree,
every movement, every sound...
and all us gung-ho
bastard sons of John Wayne,
all us boot camp Jolly Green Giants...
gearing up for war...
ho, ho, ho! rock and roll
screaming in my head, that
pounding rhythm frees my soul
as we disappear into a cold,
gray-hearted darkness...
                                              "I've been waiting so long..."

13 months after... I

waltz out of the jungle...
                                              " I've been waiting so long..."

back in the world

dragging a sea bag of dying
thought behind me...
                                               "I've been waiting so long..."

back at the airport

where I left her,
listening...
to the suffocated echo
of those last words
she ever said to me,
"I love you... forever...!"
                                              "To be where I'm going..."

knowing all the time...

I'll never see her...
never hear her...
say those words...
again...

                                              "In the sunshine of your love.”

Woodie o9-27-o9 (rewrites 2o12-16)

*Sunshine of Your Love

written by Jack Bruce,

Pete Brown and Eric Clapton