Remembering

I can remember my family, their smiles all so warm;

And sitting on my porch watching a summer storm.

Its things like these I miss so much;

Like my baby girl’s laughter, my wife’s soft touch.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen them, so very long.

It’s only their memory that keeps me strong.

I remember when the bombing quit, so long ago:

I have so many questions, the answers I don’t know.

I was flying RECON when I went down in ’68;

The rescue birds were in sight, but just too late.

They caught me, they beat me, and they put me in a cage;

I was scared I was hurting, I was filled with rage.

In time, other Americans joined me in this place;

Friends for years, yet to meet face to face.

There are not as many of us as there were before;

Ours was a friendship born out of war.

Guards tell us we’ve been forgotten, people back home don’t care;

Oh please let them be lying, it would be so unfair.

No matter how I try, sometimes I can’t remember home;

At times like these I feel like I’m dead, so very alone.

We were pawns in a war we were not allowed to win;

To leave us here to die would truly be a sin.

I still love my country and will obey to the death the oath I’d sworn:

But today I’ll sit in my cage and watch a summer storm.

Michael D. Monfrooe

May 1983

To all those we left behind.