Jonathan Penton
so i'm
at a bar no i'm
at a party or i'm
walking down a downtown street and there's this man
and he's
my age and he is a
some man and
he's cry
ing
he is cry and
he
wants to talk to me
because he
needs some one to
talk to
because he
doesn't have many friends
and i look like
someone he can trust
he is
my age and
he is
an NCO and he just got back
and i
do not want to talk about this
and i do not want
to be here but he is here and i am here
and i am still here and he is still talking
and he doesn't want to hurt anyone
he just wants things to be better he thought he
could make things better but
now he just wants to stop crying all the god damn time
i know
this is not a new thing i
saw Forrest Gump which had veryrealistic
wartime footage and for
counterbalance i saw
Full Metal Jacket
which showed how sexy
men could be
i saw a verywealthy actor portray Lee
surrendering to Grant
and adifferentactor cry at the Treaty of Versailles
and of course there was
the real violence
the real hatred
the real madness
but as bad as things got
sooner or later
i could get away
and i always did
eventually but now i'm
in this bar at
this party and
on this downtown Texan street and
he is the first NCO home and
he is the first of many he is
my age but so many,
so many are still gone,
so many are so much younger than me and i say
Johnny, you'd better get used to this, because
this is a big nation and
this is a big war and there will be
many NCOs
and they will have
no place to go
and if they cannot get away then
neither can you