shaded homestead, burrowed night

emotions rise, and take their flight;

to poets they are like fireflies,

dazzling jars held before our eyes

but unless you are a clever pen

you’ll be bogging through a foreign fen

and for those whose pleats are lacking flare

nary a wayward man will care

with D. Phillip Caron

Old demons sleep

By the dark of star and moon

Except for me and one restless face—

That’s Jamie haunting that Wall

The grass grows green

And the water runs clear

But no one knows where

Jamie lies today

Chorus:

Some men give, and some men win

Some never grow to be men

Some men drink, some men sleep

And some men walk the midnight streets

Jamie has gone a soldier

Out of Quang Tri

Into their Viet guns

We lay in fire where Jamie came to pain

I held him close, and as he begged for grace

I used my knife, and Jamie died that way

Chorus

Repeat verses 1 & 2 except

“No one knows *but me*

Where Jamie lies today”

Final Chorus

with D. Phillip Caron

In the green bamboo cane

Where the dirt trails meet

We found him barb-wired to an elm

With a burnt-out fire underneath

A Marine, and naked

Two feet above the Earth

A thousand wounds

From the twists and pain

Before they finally gave him relief

Chorus:

And that day, there were no prisoners

Where the Moon and the bamboo meet

Hot steel, there is Bloodfire

And that was Viet Nam

I see a glow of gunfire

Through the Asian night

Countin’ stripes of aerial red

Through the blistered starlight

Standin’ on your highway

With my thumb and pack

I’ve been home for 38 years

But I keep going back

Chorus

(…And that’s *still* Vietnam)

There's a breeze beneath my feet

Only thing I need to feel

Trust in all the souls I'll meet

Help me fly, with wings of steel

Every current, and every breath

Cushions me as I ascend

Late of life; at one with death

Oblivion, a sweet yet bitter end

Until now, I'd hide my faith

Deities too hard to see

Supposedly they keep souls safe

Archangel, or arch enemy?

Bend me, shape me to your will

Only then these wisps shall win

Valediction comes when I am still

Ether take me; let my time begin...

The walls I built up

Kept out the wrong things

Now I don't know how

To deal

With the things I need

To escape them

Brother,

Comrade,

Death has come calling,

Do not fear,

Elysium awaits you,

Where you can tend your land,

Mend your fences,

Break your horses,

And live with love for all time.

I, for one, shall envy you,

Until my day has come,

And then,

We can both talk of those small things again,

And share a drink in the evening light.

Looking back hurts too much,

But why can't I forgot what was lost?

Is it my curse to wander alone?

Will I one day realize that there is no tree waiting for me?

- Michael Hall

I'm the outcast,

My dark look,

Is a mere symbol of my cloudy out look on life,

Because of my look,

People hate me,

They treat me like scum,

And sometimes they take the ones I want to stay away from me,

Whether it be because of their own intentions,

Or the working of fate:

Life is cruel.

- Michael Hall

We said goodbye,

But you said goodnight,

Because to you goodbye is forever;

You were mad at the ones who pulled us apart,

I was sorrow-filled.

Sitting on a rock,

High in the hills,

Looking out onto my vast surroundings,

Knowing that you're a mere hour away by car,

And yet unable to go to you.

Is this what life's always like,

It seems so to me:

Just an endless wheel of going from loving the lost and loving the ones around you,

And so on,

Never finding that long plain where the one you don't want to lose stays,

And while that may seem eternal,

Even that has an end,

Which comes when you least expect it.

- Michael Hall