Below is a series of poems I have written over the past year while working with young combat veterans. The first is a hurray for our side, the second a chant that would have been at home in a war protest movement. The third and fourth about the adjustment from war to peace.
The final one about the brotherhood veterans share in treatment and beyond.
America
America, America, I have not seen you all and all, but what I have seen makes stand straight, proud and tall.
In this land of mine folks can say exactly what they think, pray or not, dance a lot, drink if they want to drink.
On country roads or city streets I still hear your pure heart, Yes, I said It! And shall repeat it, I still hear her pure heart beat!
Our sins way heavy, I know that is true, and for those sins we have, or shall, pay our dues. In blood and mud in Gettysburg alone 51,000 casualties!
In peace or war corruption finds its way into politics, put politicians never made the American heart tick!
People and prophets have shown the direction with loving, angry, pointing hands, one for the heart, one raised in faith toward heaven!
Washington, Adams, Jefferson more than politicians were they! Fathers of vision, men of reason, dreamers of better days!
Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglas confronted our hypocrisy, through pain and blood they bequeathed us a finer democracy
Far Too Many Way Too Young
Far too Many and Way too Young, Would've been better if a song was sung! Hate and pride throw life aside, the seed of greed makes the soldier bleed!
Far too Many Way too Young, Would've been better is a song was sung!
The Rich get richer and the young are sent but you don't understand why students are bent! It is a friend who past in a far away land, where 20 years from now we'll be buying and selling as much as we can!
Far too Many Way too Young would've been better if a song was sung
The memories stay bright in an old man's head, how can they fade with so many dead. He would rather shake a hand or kiss a cheek, but his hope for man has been made bleak!
Far too many, Way too young would've been better if song was sung!
We are singing now, let our freak flag fly, the enemies in the world will change in time, let's have a meal, let's make a deal!
Far too many, Way too young, All is better when a song is sung!
Memorial Day Poem .... Don Boucher....
Addicted to War
It was never my goal
But a merger occurred
The fright of fight
Met the pump of Adrenaline
War is Hell
But I am High Like Heaven
Bombs bursting in mid-air
And I don't care
I am a soldier of misfortune and
I am addicted to War
Limbs that fly
Guts that jump
Owning the world
On a cocaine high
I am a soldier of misfortune and
I am Addicted to War
The heroin ache
The ripping of my insides
On the chase
Fuck normal life and
It's meaningless rat race
I am a soldier of misfortune and I am
And I am Addicted to War!
Don Boucher, at 6:06 PM
Surviving the Peace
You fought in a land far away
And did what you had to do
You saw friends fall
At your side
So doing drugs
Was an earned right
And a reasonable place to hide
The War for you finished and done
But the fight with addictions has begun
So now the question is
Will the Peace I Survive!
Seen genocide and suicide
The memories of your killing
Have no place to hide
Your deeds had their place
In the protection of the human race
But will the peace I survive
Up for days alert at the trigger
Now sleep refuses to linger
Your mind that won't adapt,
Won't even nap
As you try to move beyond
The Ranger tag and Army cap
You ask...
Will the Peace I survive!
Vet's Circle
In a Veteran circle
With men half my age
Listening and learning
To the trauma they engage
In isolation Self Imposed
In the group they find Repose
Avoiding war entirely
Is too much to ask
I suppose
What's caught
What's taught
What's fought
When peace is sought
Not peace with the past
Though that is true in part
Peace with the future
Yah, but everyone
Wants a new start
To know it is or
Wasn't done in vain
That there is justification
For this life and its pain
That there are good reasons
We all should remain sane
To laugh as you go about your day
To enjoy the simple pleasures
Of playing a game
To remain as long as you can remain
And navigate the
Stages of Change
To enjoy both the sun and the rain
To know you can be alone and not lonely
Because what every Vet circle knows
Is you don't live for yourself only
The final one about the brotherhood veterans share in treatment and beyond.
America
America, America, I have not seen you all and all, but what I have seen makes stand straight, proud and tall.
In this land of mine folks can say exactly what they think, pray or not, dance a lot, drink if they want to drink.
On country roads or city streets I still hear your pure heart, Yes, I said It! And shall repeat it, I still hear her pure heart beat!
Our sins way heavy, I know that is true, and for those sins we have, or shall, pay our dues. In blood and mud in Gettysburg alone 51,000 casualties!
In peace or war corruption finds its way into politics, put politicians never made the American heart tick!
People and prophets have shown the direction with loving, angry, pointing hands, one for the heart, one raised in faith toward heaven!
Washington, Adams, Jefferson more than politicians were they! Fathers of vision, men of reason, dreamers of better days!
Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglas confronted our hypocrisy, through pain and blood they bequeathed us a finer democracy
Far Too Many Way Too Young
Far too Many and Way too Young, Would've been better if a song was sung! Hate and pride throw life aside, the seed of greed makes the soldier bleed!
Far too Many Way too Young, Would've been better is a song was sung!
The Rich get richer and the young are sent but you don't understand why students are bent! It is a friend who past in a far away land, where 20 years from now we'll be buying and selling as much as we can!
Far too Many Way too Young would've been better if a song was sung
The memories stay bright in an old man's head, how can they fade with so many dead. He would rather shake a hand or kiss a cheek, but his hope for man has been made bleak!
Far too many, Way too young would've been better if song was sung!
We are singing now, let our freak flag fly, the enemies in the world will change in time, let's have a meal, let's make a deal!
Far too many, Way too young, All is better when a song is sung!
Memorial Day Poem .... Don Boucher....
Addicted to War
It was never my goal
But a merger occurred
The fright of fight
Met the pump of Adrenaline
War is Hell
But I am High Like Heaven
Bombs bursting in mid-air
And I don't care
I am a soldier of misfortune and
I am addicted to War
Limbs that fly
Guts that jump
Owning the world
On a cocaine high
I am a soldier of misfortune and
I am Addicted to War
The heroin ache
The ripping of my insides
On the chase
Fuck normal life and
It's meaningless rat race
I am a soldier of misfortune and I am
And I am Addicted to War!
Don Boucher, at 6:06 PM
Surviving the Peace
You fought in a land far away
And did what you had to do
You saw friends fall
At your side
So doing drugs
Was an earned right
And a reasonable place to hide
The War for you finished and done
But the fight with addictions has begun
So now the question is
Will the Peace I Survive!
Seen genocide and suicide
The memories of your killing
Have no place to hide
Your deeds had their place
In the protection of the human race
But will the peace I survive
Up for days alert at the trigger
Now sleep refuses to linger
Your mind that won't adapt,
Won't even nap
As you try to move beyond
The Ranger tag and Army cap
You ask...
Will the Peace I survive!
Vet's Circle
In a Veteran circle
With men half my age
Listening and learning
To the trauma they engage
In isolation Self Imposed
In the group they find Repose
Avoiding war entirely
Is too much to ask
I suppose
What's caught
What's taught
What's fought
When peace is sought
Not peace with the past
Though that is true in part
Peace with the future
Yah, but everyone
Wants a new start
To know it is or
Wasn't done in vain
That there is justification
For this life and its pain
That there are good reasons
We all should remain sane
To laugh as you go about your day
To enjoy the simple pleasures
Of playing a game
To remain as long as you can remain
And navigate the
Stages of Change
To enjoy both the sun and the rain
To know you can be alone and not lonely
Because what every Vet circle knows
Is you don't live for yourself only
