Lou J. Klaiber

DARK MOON RISING: 1966

Night
comes weeping and wailing
as darkness drags the trail
toward a village of tears.

……… children dragged
… screaming
and nailed to a wall
………… wailing and
weeping,
and all destroyed.

Our promise to them
not kept.

…………………………………

Silence!
tight lipped…
bloodlust and anger.

… stone cold eyes ……… are the
blue hatred of the killing.

Night becomes a dark moon rising
unto death,
and short bursts of fire…
knives,
final screams of an enemy
falling
away
toward the prayer of dawn.

……………………………………

Nothing remains of me
… that was ever young.

Something died within.

I move slowly and
forever within,

… day by day.

…………… far into the valley of souls,
hungry for death
and the feast of war.

The scars fester,
deep and unseen,
bleeding,
year after year.

…………………………………………

Revenge is a long trail of sorrow
beneath a dark moon
rising
within the very tears
of the soul.

…………… yet I would choose that path
again,
… for all the children,
Christlike!
… dying upon the cross of Vietnam.

Children,
… crucified!