lam son 719

lam son 719,
or Dewey Canyon II,
an operation:

as was

Birmingham
El Paso
Hattiesburg
Springfield
Shenandoah I
Amarillo
Attleboro
Lexington
Baton Rouge
Quyet Thang
Resolve to Win
Toan Thang
Certain Victory

in an uncertain place
where the road meets the air
there was a certain death
but wasn't it everywhere?
23 February 1971
a hero's life explosively undone

General Do Cao Tri
died swiftly
in a helicopter crash
in Cambodia
i saw the funeral procession
from atop my compound wall
when i arrived just in time
with an army friend of mine
i could see the armored personnel carrier
and wonderful bouquets of brightly colored flowers
and i heard the marching band serene they played
spreading upwards and outwards music with a mournful edge
enticing, but there was nothing here to bomb,
half broken walls and a stony dirt road and the hot sun
and it seemed the war fell parallel to the road
where all the answers sat when there was no danger
i watched merely thinking what a damn good show it was
the General was buried in Bien Hoa's military cemetery
with his dress hat, gloves, sword, and baton
used "to spank the Viet Cong,"
he once said, before he was dead.
and Nixon said, before he was dead,
"Tonight I can report that Vietnamization has succeeded."
and very logically, i thought that he was conceited.