When the leaves fell,
they fell like bombs,
Crashing to the ground
n o i s e l e s s l y
But he could feel the impact of each delicate leaf
hitting the
soft

autumn



ground.
And when he looked up at the trees,
stretching their bare branches towards the sky,
he saw young Vietnamese children, r e a c h i n g out to their mothers
Who lay lifeless
Slumped against the walls of e m p t y buildings
Once

called

home.
And when he closed his eyes to sleep,
He was haunted by comrades
Who had
f

a


l



l




e





n
beside him
And left behind widows and children and lives
in the name of democracy.

They say the wounds of war can never really heal.
I know yours didn't.
We won the war
But you lost yours.
Were you contemplating surrender
when you held that familiar friend in your hands?
A gun had once defended your life, but now it would take it
Did you think about wives
and children
and sorrow?
Or were you simply thinking of the dead,
autumn leaves
falling
from the branches?
You, too, died in autumn,
But you fell in spring.