{"id":894,"date":"2016-03-06T17:21:12","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T23:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/?p=894"},"modified":"2016-03-06T17:21:12","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T23:21:12","slug":"teddy-bears-and-broken-hearts-my-paltry-seven-ribbons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/2016\/03\/06\/teddy-bears-and-broken-hearts-my-paltry-seven-ribbons\/","title":{"rendered":"Teddy Bears and Broken Hearts (My Paltry Seven Ribbons)"},"content":{"rendered":"

May I pray Lord for the troubles that bear down on my mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m so broken over the treatment Vietnam Vets seem to find,<\/span><\/p>\n

Still I remember ribbons torn from my chest by those that hate,<\/span><\/p>\n

We fought to protect their rights yet there is no way to correlate,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Teddy bears and broken hearts seem to be arm in arm coming home,<\/span><\/p>\n

So many brought a plush toy as a reminder of the life they had known,<\/span><\/p>\n

I look at the stars and reflect upon the nights of combat so far away,<\/span><\/p>\n

Shock therapy and my mind have hidden away memories of that day,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I left the hospital grounds I had my precious discharge hid away,<\/span><\/p>\n

Honorable discharges don’t come easy unless you did as they’d say,<\/span><\/p>\n

Proudly we left the grounds to hecklers and protester’s evil glare,<\/span><\/p>\n

My paltry seven ribbons seemed bare to the ribbons Marines wear,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet they were mine and proudly worn upon my chest for all to see,<\/span><\/p>\n

Since both of my hands were occupied, a protester tore them from me,<\/span><\/p>\n

“Stand down,” the order came from the Shore Patrol reading my eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

Although weakened from injuries still I can kill as my appearance lies,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another’s hands upon me with rage brings flashbacks of months past,<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychiatrists and drugs have diminished the need that revenge be cast,<\/span><\/p>\n

Until this moment of test have I had to control an urge trained into me,<\/span><\/p>\n

React immediately to protect myself and kill or weaken the enemy,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I try to calm my damaged being and control my mental rage to smite,<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of a long kiss goodbye as I left her behind one beautiful night,<\/span><\/p>\n

As I try to bend to pick up my ribbons an Army amputee offers a hand,<\/span><\/p>\n

The feeling of self pity suddenly dies as I realize he isn’t able to stand,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time has been unkind I must say but without loving her I’d have died,<\/span><\/p>\n

He handed me my ribbons with a wink but for some reason I just cried,<\/span><\/p>\n

I stood and sobbed the tears the shrinks had tried to pry from my mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

And I reached out blindly seeking the first kind soul’s hand I could find,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m so weak from my ordeal it took three months so I could walk,<\/span><\/p>\n

During that time the psychiatric doctors tried hard to get me to talk,<\/span><\/p>\n

I said what needed to be said to be enough for them to be wrong,<\/span><\/p>\n

Telling me if she loved me she would have written and we don’t belong,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My heart clung to my love for her and golden silence locked her inside,<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet I clung to loving her and tried not to listen but I admit I often cried,<\/span><\/p>\n

And here I stand broken by a protester pulling ribbons from my chest,<\/span><\/p>\n

Four months ago this wouldn’t have happened when I was at my best,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That moment seemed to last an eternity but it most likely was short,<\/span><\/p>\n

Those men, those proud men stood tall and offered me their support,<\/span><\/p>\n

I knew some of the dischargees as we were called that happy day,<\/span><\/p>\n

But there were those born warriors that would’ve preferred to stay,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two of our group knew my plight and of the brutality I had endured,<\/span><\/p>\n

I must say none of us honorably discharged men left there cured,<\/span><\/p>\n

They comforted me and for some reason protected this weakened man,<\/span><\/p>\n

We soldiers, sailors, and warriors band together in support when we can,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are your Vietnam Vets and we shall endure this treatment to the end,<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been fifty years of mistreatment preventing us the chance to mend,<\/span><\/p>\n

As I boarded the bus protester’s rage brought spit along with stone,<\/span><\/p>\n

Except for those that love we men, in America Vietnam Vets are alone,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I made a vow to myself that day to lock away my experiences inside,<\/span><\/p>\n

It was difficult to keep it hid away deep inside, it cannot be denied,<\/span><\/p>\n

I married that girl because the doctors were wrong and I was right,<\/span><\/p>\n

But sometimes the war reared its head as nightmares in the night,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But six years ago the silence came to an end as PTSD took command,<\/span><\/p>\n

I recalled everything I witnessed as well as each that died of my hand,<\/span><\/p>\n

Once more I clung to loving her and it was she that carried me through,<\/span><\/p>\n

Crying, I asked forgiveness for sins of war, sweetly she said, “I love you.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The end.\u00a0 Thank you Patti<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May I pray Lord for the troubles that bear down on my mind, I’m so broken over the treatment Vietnam Vets seem to find, Still I remember ribbons torn from my chest by those that hate, We fought to protect their rights yet there is no way to correlate,   Teddy bears and broken hearts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poemsforpatti.com\/love\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}