Opening Words from Sun. May 28 by Ron Williams
A poem called But Johnny I Hardly Knew You, by Ronald Williams (1969). A true account of a brief encounter in summer, 1968, with a young Navy medic, who was later sent to Vietnam, where he died as a result of wounds suffered there.
But Johnny I hardly knew you, you know,
when you said you had to go your way
or should I say it was their way, I knew you wanted to stay.
Our brief encounter, wearing, sharing rich experiences
we both had known before we were grown.
We’d never be alone, we said, when we shed the grey or blue.
Although you were aware of what could be, we knew not, nor could we see a reason.
But take it in stride, go along for the ride,
on that steady silver ship with pride.
Even though she cries and knows not why,
Tears cannot lie.
So off you went, my boy, your man, our friends,
alone into the valley of death sailed the three hundred!
Although you long for life,
into the valley of Cong you strode,
along the inland shoreline rode.
Driven then, to live for others, thrust your medic’s hand to Brothers,
save the lives of Mother’s sons, until you cannot stand the pain!
You can’t stop now, it’s not a game you play,
it’s life, it’s strife,
it’s a war that’s taking men away, that’s driving them away,
until they lay there dying, crying, in some
filthy rice field, yielding to the earth that
which is the earth’s and yielding to them:
Nothing!
Never time to think of home,
nor flag, nor Mother’s apple pie or that tear in her eye.
Not at least while men still die around you.
Not as long as bullets fly around you.
Not as long as hatreds cry around you.
Then one night in the heat of the fight, a blinding flash, not a crack but a crash!
And you knew the score, the meaning of War is Hell!
Your fight was done, your battle won, another nation’s son came home to rest in Arlington.
And yielding to the earth that which is the earth’s, and yielding to you, Nothing!
But Johnny I hardly knew you, you know,
when you said you had to go your way,
or should I say it was their way, I knew you wanted to stay.