That Box
Many years after my
I discovered something I had not earlier discerned.
Dad, then Mom kept my letters home and I was shocked.
She put them in closet in a plain, cardboard box.
Deep in the back of a closet, beneath shoes and clothes
Were the memories of a once young, soldier boy.
I slowly opened those flaps with reluctant trepidation.
I asked myself about my emotional preparation.
There was no recollection of the stories sent back home.
Did I tell the truth or coat my words with foam?
Was there a chance that my experiences crept through?
Had I sense enough to withhold what I knew?
Yellowed envelopes had a map and said “Free Air Mail.”
My eyes were drawn to their forgotten contents.
I reached into that box reluctantly, feeling very frail.
Inside could be stories about a year of violence.
How can I delay the impact of this unexpected revelation?
Reasons for postponement were my next creation.
I thought of a good one that seemed better than any other.
Perhaps they should be in a chronological order.
I read them...from March, April and then May of 1968.
My writing was messy, my words not straight.
In ways they read like there was something missing.
There was; I tried to spare my parents stressing.
The stories almost touched the truth, even the brutal.
I hoped, as I read them, they would be fruitful.
The sentences ran uphill, from left to right on the page.
As months passed, I saw the flickering of rage.
Memories flooded in, through doors long since shut.
Overwhelmed, I stopped, held my breath in check.
I felt compelled to let my brain’s dam-gates recede.
What can it hurt now? I may cry but I will not bleed.
That box was my personal Wall, looming stark and cold.
Did I not give enough? I often felt so small and low.
Like the Wall, the reflections were glimmering and real.
If I write the things I feel, perhaps another can heal.
Mike Mullins,
Michael D. "Moon" Mullins, author of "Vietnam in Verse, poetry for beer drinkers." "ViV" won the Gold Medal for poetry, 2007, from the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA). The book is available on line from Amazon, B&N, and B-a-M book stores.
It is available as an audio-book exclusively from the author. Please contact me at this e-mail address; mullins.m.1@comcast.net or via land mail at POB 456 Windfall, In. 46076.
Vietnam Veteran, Delta 3/7, 199th Light Infantry, '68-'69.
Vice President of the MWSA. One dollar from either version goes to the Wounded Warrior Project.
[Bratnote: This poem from Mike will be in his next book "Bullets and Boo-Hoos." Watch for it!]
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