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Southern Beach



(1)

Victorious Warrior,

more furious than battle-scare,

quietly reigns, yet gives no balm for sore

and gnawing guilt, not even for awhile.

Highland Princesses, water-color Au Dais:

come! COME!! Inhale with me this sweet night's air!

Come and tempt me, little "ceurvette"!

"Moon" and "Sun" at Red Beach beguiled

with hours of "Peace", Love's cousins.

Then rivulets, crimson, flow from Hate's blows.

Etched images. Kodachrome trials.

Those awful mists of war and death still hiss!

The "hero" in "survivor's guilt" knows

just how really eternal "sad" is.



(1a.) Offered as explanation:

Victor, your true Respite reach,

and stasis find where Life lives full

within your mind; your heart's Heart find Peace

you thought had flown; such Peace its own reward.

It lights your tranquil path .   Burgeoning vastness

pours!  POURS !! , filling Life's sweet night air so full

and cool and free from  badness !!

But not free long enough to flee

far enough to remain free,

for sudden Anguish talons this message ::

" ALL must be avoided

which brings memories of these Young Deaths !! "

( Minds lie to themselves in  failed efforts

to avoid such terminal sadness. )





(2)

"Warriors go home" I know,

and memories, MEMORIES we shall bring!



Oh!, of panic, of victories, of war's ebb and flow;

of tenderest loves, pitched in Primeval pathos.



We'll come home (with parts of us unseen);

the waves tell me I'll never feel more loss.





(3)

Inhaled by Fate

into her labyrinth we sailed, on hopes:

"I'll be a lucky one and I'll go home!"

Then, "The Storm Before Calm"!

"My Khe Beach", "China Beach", "Westmoreland's Beach!"

Fate threw and impaled us

on stakes erected by Treaty and bomb.

All of us! Strung out! Each ALONE!

"Ah, love! Yes! Let's love true!"

Sans oaths, words written: we have life to share,

hopes to claim, which promise us : : "ENDLESS, there!"

These sighing, crying words on soft winds blew: :

(Life, ours, we'd make Love last, and ever care)

"WILL YOU LOVE ME, TOMORROW?'...her words cried.

Although there came no answer, yet we tried.

Now rest here: safe from all Furies, nothing calmer;

this mind-grave of a tired warrior.