1/12/18 Mighty Mortar Man? (Poem)

    Last night, I was driving back to work listening to Boneyard and they were explaining Rooster from Alice In Chains is an homage to the writers dad and his time in the Vietnam war, his nickname was Rooster because his hair would always stand up in the middle.  I used to find it an annoying song, but the explanation made it an instant classic, now that I know.  With lines like "yeah, they come to snuff the Rooster..., but he ain't gonna die! (Yeah!)  It is a powerful and emotional song.  This is my attempt at doing the same.

Mighty Mortar Man

Dad has always told us the basics about his time in the service overseas

A true man keeping the monsters of reality away, we didn't deserve to see.

Before we came, mother said he was still fighting those images at night,

Saigon hadn't left him, the yellow man still occupied his line of sight

It would take years and many cold beers to make them disappear

So many we still see as plain old alcoholics on the street, some of them still count it as therapy.

My Mighty Mortar Man went off to fight in another land

to conquer for the old white men as they had planned

He came back not to the music of a marching band

but the disdain of a public for the war had gotten out of hand

When you are a man you don't question an order

you trust that if you give them your life they will keep you contained within a safe border.

But when it comes time to open up the night

nothing like a storm of US made and delivered mortars in flight

Dad talks about dropping so many you could see bodies running in the lit up darkness

He says he felt bad, but in war you do what you do, to take credit for a kill would be heartless.

My Mighty Mortar Man went off to fight in another land

to conquer for the old white men as they had planned

He came back not to the music of a marching band

but the disdain of a public for the war had gotten out of hand

Now that he is old, we see him as goofy, nagging, and a little bit of a pain

but never forget it is men like this that the US entrusted for us to gain

I can see in his eyes, a champion of virtue, a man of few words

can you represent your kin when war comes calling for herds

can you raise the quality of life for your kids, so they won't have to?

My Mighty Mortar Man went off to fight in another land

to conquer for the old white men as they had planned

He came back not to the music of a marching band

but the disdain of a public for the war had gotten out of hand