The Forgotten Poem

I have forgotten to listen to the poem, as thoughts of a story fill my mind.

I am stuck on the idea of not moving forward but of moving away, of leaving loved ones behind. The poem is lost to me as I think of my parents, newly wed, and living in Saigon. Soon my father goes away to fight the war in humid jungles and broken cities. Disappearing with no contact with his new wife and now adopted son.

Already widowed because of the war, my mother is left to worry about her husband, taking care of her son, keeping a brave face with other military wives. The longer the months move away, the more she worries of being a widow again. Then the war has declared her husband missing in action.

The long months continue to move away. Believed dead, her husband returns from the war.  He fought battles in the jungles and the streets, one arm carries his rifle, the other holds an IV. He can not hold anything in, so he fights without pants. He returns just skin, bone, and dysentery.

My father returns to Saigon after fighting the war and soon after, those who will be my family leave Vietnam and familiar faces for new faces in America.

I have forgotten to listen to the poem, but I think it was a good poem to hear.