once Saigon

it was once Saigon
but now it's all gone
the muddy river slept and burned
and what have we learned
painting it black won't get it back
the body bags filled with Asian dirt
who said it wouldn't hurt
watching the helicopters at the embassy
the woman with her startled baby
grabbing the barbed wire wall
dodging shots before the fall
and all the President's men
in their white face
the conference table with expensive pens and fancy lace
and a perfect powder room
where the drunks sang delirious songs of doom
in the stone temple
the gods sat hard and cold
trading fates which could be bought and sold
in the parlors of the press
the readers were forced to guess
what in the streets of an American city
was real and what was witty
and on the television screen
cigarette smoke filled the air
in Vietnam the midnight sparkle
was a phosphorescent flare
and young men lived and died there
while in the Pentagon
it was once Saigon
but now it's all gone
when the flesh gave way to marrow
the cry was 'Broken Arrow'