Agent Orange
Living on borrowed time.
Always wondering,
How many days left...
Are mine.
I'm a dead man walking.
A living corpse as cold as the grave.
Got blood thinners and nitro tabs
To make my heart behave.
It's no big thing.
Just my dumb luck.
Thought I'd signed on for adventure.
Not rice paddy muck.
I think of things
I've done in my life.
Nothing can match
The Vietnam stuff.
Keep being reminded
At Veterans Day each year,
Of all the firefights and struggles,
All the fear.
My eyes were wide open.
Was young as could be.
Saw so many bodies,
Lifeless, yet free.
Free of their troubles.
Their stress was all gone.
A green body bag.
Now, nothing can go wrong.
I helped so many.
Only to see them die alone.
Now, I remember their faces.
Won't leave me alone.
The Government knew
About the effects of Agent Orange.
And I...like so many others.
Will die very soon.
About this poem
I'm a Vietnam Veteran. I served with the 101st Airborne Division from Nov. 1967-Nov. 1968 as a combat medic. Two years ago I was diagnosed with low ejection fraction (EF), a disease of the heart muscle as a direct result of my exposure to Agent Orange (a herbicide and defoliant chemical) used by our military during the Vietnam War. I took my diagnosis as a death sentence as low ejection fraction is five to seven years. This poem is a reflection of how I feel about it.
Written on November 11, 2021
Submitted by larrymize on March 08, 2022
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 70 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXX ABXB ACXC XXXX XDED XFXF EXXX FGXG XXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 858 |
Words | 197 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Agent Orange" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/124038/agent-orange>.
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