Lost the luster, of my youth
A generation, not raised but rushed
We weren’t taught the lessons of
our forebearers
Left to find, what our parents had
done
Forced to face our predecessors
failures, alone with many still
paying for foolish youth as adults
Passing their failure
Not facing it
Our world became skewed
Empty, Meaningless
As we watch it crumble
A piece at a time
We feared the return of
The past, as War loomed
Then it fell apart
The buildings crumbled
As War began
Our children’s Vietnam
A decade lost to time
We watched the war
We fought and died
We always believed it would
End
The world divided
Who was the enemy?
No matter who we conquered
Always Another
In the end we may find
when the smoke clears
The enemy was
Us.

An Original Poem by H.R. Beebe