Altered

                                                                After Vietnam

                                                                insomnia, nightmares

                                                                startle reflex

                                                                terrifying memory loops

                                                                uncontrollable sense of

                                                                being under threat, all times.

                                                                Vietnam veterans

                                                                reaching retirement age.

                                                                Body isn’t working as well;

                                                                mental health issues.

                                                                Retirement time -

                                                                a surge in PTSD.

                                                                1967 – Albin turned 19.

                                                                Life looked good:

                                                                new job, new clothes, new car.

                                                                Called to serve – put in uiform,

                                                                on a plane to a humid jungle.

                                                                Stood in line.   Sergeant pointed,

                                                                “You…come with me.”

                                                                “That’s how I got to

                                                                picking up the bodies.”

                                                                His year in Vietname,

                                                                morgue detail,

                                                                collecting U.S. dead,

                                                                “the ones lying in rice

                                                                paddies for days; their skin

                                                                came off in my hands.

                                                                Didn’t have rubber gloves.

                                                                Putting guys back together

                                                                with bare hands.”

                                                                Year up, Albin flew to

                                                                California, got hustled

                                                                onto a bus, past protestors

                                                                throwing rocks, crying out

                                                                “baby killer.” For decades

                                                                after Vietname, no one

                                                                ever said thank you

                                                                for your service –

                                                                to Albin, to anyone.

                                                                -Sue Neufarth Howard

                                                                 Erasure Poem from “Aging Vietname vets find fellowship,” by Anne Saker,

                                                                 Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, March 6, 2016