Feel Better Now!

Two-step vipers
Large hairy rats
The local food fare
Was the neighborhood's cat

C-Ration huts
50 cent cokes
"You number 10,000!"
the only English they spoke

"You give me chop chop?
Mamma boom boom?
Two dollar long time."
You need penicillin soon!

Beetle nut teeth
bookoo dinky dau
smile to your face
then steal your chow

Sappers pull the pin
as they walk up and grin...
Uncle Sam sends what's left
to your next of kin

Do I seem bitter?
You bet your ass I am!
We got more than we bargained for
in that shit-hole, Vietnam

Back in the States
Circa '74;
bringing in the Vietnamese
to our front door

Give them a job
Set them up in a home
while Vet's are living under bridges
fighting their WAR alone

You know...
things still haven't changed
I don't mean to dwell on the past
Is me or my imagination,
or are we still getting the shaft...?

Copyright Richard D. Preston