Use theme from “Tell All the Truth, But Tell It Slant” by Emily Dickinson
Grandpa
Grandpa smokes another cigarette, typical
This is his fourth one and it’s only 10 in the morning
He is working himself out of the nightmares
That he has every night
Ever since he came back from the Dien Bien Phu battle
Grandpa smokes another cigarette
I have never killed a man, he said
But I saw enough deaths that I imagine their bodies as mine
I have never killed a man, he repeated
But my platoon lost half of its brothers by the end of that horrid night
Grandpa smokes another cigarette
He pauses and he puts his face into his hands
First time I saw my grandpa cries
Silence
Awkward, heartbreaking silence
Grandpa no longer has the strength to tell me another secret
But he knows I won’t mind
Grandpa takes out another cigarette
Time doesn’t erase anything, he says
Time is as selfish as I am: it won’ forgive and will never forget
Time is the enemy that I aimed my 47 at
I shoot
And shoot
And shoot
Yet it never dies.
Grandpa takes the last hit of his cigarette
My granddaughter, please don’t be angry at the soldiers
Who lost their lives and that of others
to fulfill a mission that dictated their existence,
and that of their husbands, their wives, and their children
Cháu gái của tôi, please don’t judge another soldier
We are only the left over of the world latest predicament.
My grandpa puts down his cigarette
This would not be his last one of the day.
This was amazing. It really touched my heart. And you put a lot of feeling into this poem. The way you used repetition made a big impact. Like where you wrote, “I shoot and shoot and shoot yet it never dies”, I could just imagine that scene in a battle or a war. I wonder if your grandpa was really a soldier in a war because I have seen veterans just relive every moment in wars in their memories and its heart breaking to hear those kind of stories. Great job on making this poem very powerful.
The structure of your poem is very impacting. As is the topic. I noticed that you switched tenses throughout and I’m left wondering if you do that on purpose. I personally think that the tense changes add a certain character to your poem. I also think you use repetition very nicely. It’s interesting that he “never killed a man” and yet that was his job as a soldier. Or was he really a soldier or was he just someone caught in the midst of war; a medic or an innocent victim perhaps? I have so many questions and yet I don’t have questions at all because somehow you seem to answer everything in your poem, or at least you give the readers enough to answer things for themselves. Thank you for writing this. Thank you for sharing this. And thank you for making me feel something upon reading this.
This is a good, expressive poem from two points of view. Sometimes we are so caught up in what we think is right and wrong that we forget to consider the reasoning behind the actions of others. I think you portrayed your grandpa’s point of view effectively in that he sees war as an action that neither side should be blamed for. We fight and they fight back but that is war. Our reasons for taking up arms may make more sense but only to us. Everybody has their own reason for fighting a war they know will cause bloodshed and the death of many. I feel as if your grandpa didn’t blame the soldiers on the other side, but instead he blames time for not allowing him to forget past mistakes or actions so that he can move on.
Thank you so much for your comment.
It is interesting that this poem reminds you of the treatments that the American soldier had to endure after the Vietnam war. I am actually writing this poem through the eyes of the Vietnamese soldiers — my grandpa started fighting in this war when he was in his mid-twenties.
I think it only goes to prove that war leaves the same scar on the people who have to go through it.
Your poem really touched me. It felt very real and I could feel the pain the grandfather feels. The poem reminds me of how American soldiers were treated during the Vietnam war. The return of soldiers was despised by society, with many spitting in their faces. The soldiers had no say in the war, they had an obligation and or duty to follow orders and fight against the enemy. They shouldn’t be blames for the careless actions of the President declaring war in fear of communism spreading and being a threat to the United States. As the Grandpa states in the poem “please don’t judge another soldier” pointing out that a soldier has a preexisting obligation to fulfill the “mission.”