I wrote this for delivering at the Vietnam Wall in 2018, but because we veterans were not permitted to approach the Wall, I delivered it at the World War One Memorial, on the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice, on the day Americans now call Veterans' Day:
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For those here on this wall memorialized,
fifty-eight thousand three hundred twenty
Of our one-time brothers in arms, we stand
(Eight women-- women die more often now
In combat), your comrades yet unfallen,
To mourn, and reflect on your sacrifice.
A very few may have left some record
Of their misgivings before signing up,
And going overseas, to meet their fate.
But in that day and age, boys and young men
Still lived in naivete unknown today.
We joined, and volunteered for the war zone
In patriotic fervor (though for some,
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