Alwaysawarrior

1,320,335 poems read

MY NEW BLACK CHARIOT

Forty three years after having gone off to Vietnam
I have had to come to terms with the results of it
Those effects of the war and exposure to chemicals

Nightmares and flashbacks I've learned to deal with
The many things seen in war at too young of an age
They'll creep in from your sub-conscience at night

Knowing no matter how hard we'd tried to help out
That many times there was nothing anyone could do
It made you become hardened and bitter at the VC

Leap ahead to the present time that we live in now
The effects of having been sprayed by Agent Orange
And what that heavy exposure has now taken from me

Over this past 8 years the dioxin has attacked me
That ingredient added to that Agent Orange mixture
It's the deadly component in it that does the damage

Intended to kill off jungle plants and vegetation
It's been found to be crippling & deadly to humans
In the past 8 years I've become even more disabled

I can no longer work due to all the medical issues
The things brought on by our constant exposure to it
It was in the water we drank and the air we breathed

Years later it's attacked our central nervous systems
It's slowly crippling me and thousands of veterans too
Many have developed the deadly cancers from it as well

This month has been an up and down ride with emotions
My wife and I will be attending my very first reunion
A Gathering Of Eagles to remember those we lost in war

Veterans who had served as Air Force Security Policemen
Defending the airbases in South Vietnam during that war
They're called the Vietnam Security Police Association

We are meeting at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio
And we will be touring the U.S. Air Force Museum there
We will have a dedication at the Security Police statue

A special bench with the names of our brother warriors
Those Air Policemen and Security Policemen who had died
They paid the ultimate price of freedom with their lives

Because my disabilities continue to get worse each year
I had to face the realization that I'll never get better
Walking itself has become a very difficult task for me

With all the walking involved in attending this reunion
I have purchased what I call my brand new Black Chariot
It's my special wheelchair that will help get me around

I have some difficulty using it due to my severe neuropathy
I have it in both my legs and also in my hands and my wrists
This makes trying to wheel it myself very difficult task now

My wife and my buddies will have to take turns pushing me
Now we can go to one of my own Security Police reunions
It'll be the first time in 43 years that I have seen them

© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.

You must have been using a cane or a wheelchair for so long
before the Veterans Administration or Medicare will pay for
one of those electric powered wheelchair or scooters for us
to get around in so that you can have some what of a normal
life. In my current condition you become very restricted as
to what and where you can go or what you can do in life and
I have to missed out on many things that I would love to do
with my own family or my friends. I can still drive without
any difficulty at all because you are sitting down when you
drive, but when you get to your destination that's when all
the problems start for me as I can only walk for very short
distances with my cane before my legs give out on me or will
just refuse to work for me or to go in the direction that I
want them to go in or they barely will hold me up just while
I'm standing still in one spot. It's like they turn to jelly
refusing to work any longer, but now with my brand new black
chariot we'll be able to venture out and go to places and do
things I haven't been able to do in the past eight years now.
It gives me the ability and the freedom to venture out again
to go to more places and to do the things that we used to do
with our family and friends once more.

Comment On This Poem --- Vote for this poem
MY NEW BLACK CHARIOT