Jesse R. Edwards

THE ADVISOR

Did you ever lay awake at night,
And wonder if what you did that day was right?
Did you ever give someone advice
That later you wished you could revise?
Did you ever waken on a stinking tropical morn
And wonder why in hell you were born?
Vietnam advisors did!

Have you ever carried everything you owned on your back,
In a thing called an “A” frame pack?
Have you ever drank water from a muddy stream
And pretend it was cold beer? Oh what a dream.
Have you ever walked so fast and hard,
That your whole body felt like melted lard?
Vietnam advisors did!

Did you ever wish on a flare lit night
That you could sleep and not have to fight?
Have you ever drank coffee as thick as tar
And eat your food from a can and your dessert was a candy bar?
You were happy to have that can,
But them eggs would be better from a frying pan!
Vietnam advisors did!

Have you ever seen people in a village relax
When they didn’t have to pay a tyrant’s tax?
Have you ever seen the smile on a man’s face
When his family could live in a safe place
Have you ever helped deliver a baby boy
And watch the widowed mother cry with joy?
Vietnam advisors did!

Have you ever seen choppers flying in groups,
overloaded with fully equipped combat troops?
Have you ever watched gunships empty rocket pods
And turn a village into flames and dirt clods?
Have you ever watched a man die before your eyes
So quick that he had no time to deliver a cry?
Vietnam advisors did!

Did you ever befriend a child and then ask why
When during a rocket attack, you saw it die?
Have you ever made a friend one day
And the next you called a chopper to carry his body away?
Have you ever seen bodies stacked in an unmarked grave
Because they refused to be a tyrant’s slave?
Vietnam advisors did!

Oh yes, do you remember some days were good, you had
time off and a day in Saigon wasn’t that bad.
Then there was that morning you stayed in the rack
because that afternoon you had to pack.
Ah, families, cold beer, and good food weren’t long away
Just at the end of that long flight to the USA
Vietnam advisors did!

Yes, you remember you gave your time and had fears,
poured out your blood and sometimes tears.
Just to stand by helpless and watch it all fall,
and in tears walk away and ask, “for what was it all?”
Do you remember friends still missing or in unmarked graves,
Maybe still alive in POW camps being used for slaves?
Vietnam advisors do!