whatever happened to the dawn?

Fort Dix on the Jersey side
of the Delaware
i never imagined i'd be wandering there
in the summer of 69
but it was all mine
even if it wasn't yet
that i heard of Tet
when Marines shot their way into
the Citadel
which eventually fell
a flag rose with new blood
on an old pipe
and stars and stripes
and young men's gripes
and dust and smoke
so thick you'd choke
these cats came from Hue
with nothing to say
but were screaming inside their head
inside the body bags counting their dead
Tennessee smiles
thousands of miles
from the green hills of a country life
with a davy crockett folding knife
and a curly haired young lover with a name
like Susie or Sally or Mame
it could never be the same
for the Georgia boy looking for his hunting dog
after the war in his personal fog
without eyes to see
his family
the training they gave
never mentioned a grave
never talked about screaming at night
or the unsettled light of a hot firefight
there's no firefly on a cool summer lawn
whatever happened to the dawn?
or the boy from Alabama or PA
who lived to lock and load another day
along the watchtower
where the rice paddy and the flower
heard the helicopter shoot the moon
will it finally be over soon,
whatever happened to the dawn?