BLOODFIRE

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)