Black gabbro glints in the sun
The thousands of names forever immortalized
Or so it should seem
Yet too easily it is forgotten
The true toil of those who fought

Blood and shit stained, the fabric
Of time whispers
Đắk Tô
An Lộc
Suoi Bong Trang
Even softer,
Albanese
Marquez
Callahan
Small still voices
Rising up into the ether
A soft prayer offered up on behalf
Of the young, gone too soon

Along the rice paddies, small reminders linger
A shell casing
Shrapnel
An abandoned helmet
The cries and moans of the fallen
They seem so close
Yet they remain in the past
Never to see dawn again.

The orange and pink agents of
Destruction withered away the green life.
It lingered in the bodies, waiting to
Strike. To cause destruction and
Death. Karma in action
Weakened breaths
Weakened bodies

A flag waves lazily in the sun
A constant reminder of
Those lost, still whispering
Smith
Doyle
Janssen
The names that now live
In our hearts