STONE WORDS

Stone words planted head to foot, white on black reflections.
These sun blurred images of long ago recollections,
Excrement, sweat, blood, death, comrades I remember.
Names clear and faces dimmed at this my life's December.

Squads of aging images cry out, lost boys' dying shouts.
Unhealed, unrepentant devastation set bleeding hearts to route.
Claiming each fierce soul beyond the life they lead.
These eternal remembrances of what stone words have said.

By: Richard E. McGinty
[1990 (U.S. Army 1963-1965)]
[STONE WORDS was written when I first visited THE VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL.]