VIETNAM WAR: Eulogy for a Stranger (a Poem)

(Apologies to Captain John W. Consolvo, Jr.)


Dear John,

My vision:

You were not an only love.

After mourning, She

Dug a hole

And loaded herself

With another man's seed.

Now another man's fruit

Joins ROTC.

*

That year:

My war raged with a love-

Child, conceived

On the tail of Purple Haze.

We rolled nickels

All through the fight;

Your blood arced,

Gushing.

You were not real then,

Just a nameless G.I.,

Wasted in the jungle:

*

Conned.

We were conned into thinking

The War would be solved by Christmas.

Oh, you never knew, of course;

You would never know.

But the steel part of me

Tells me all I need to know:

USMC 07 MAY 72 SVN VA

Engraved

Your name

Here.

_____________________________

(NOTE: I have worn Captain Consolvo’s MIA bracelet since 1991. I never knew him in life, but he lives in my heart.)

Captain John W. Consolvo, Jr. Links:

A Tribute to Capt. John W. Consolvo, USMC

Arlington National Cemetery Website

Consolvo, John Wadsworth, Jr. "Jack"

Capt. Consolvo's Mother Speaks of Hope