Crows
Those crows distant, dying,
sounds empty grave nests.
Sound crow claws, West Nile virus.
When Will These Vietnam War Poems End
(I am too Old for War Past and Present Tense)
I am too old for war.
I am on a road with worn out jeans,
cowboy hats, boots, leather vests, nothing more left of Alberta.
I was young, skinny, thought I was bright.
Green, I was strong, Indiana oak trees.
I was 6’4, tall giraffe available
draft minus one and heading Canadian North.
I certainly had piety in my green eyes.
My counselor was anxiety and fear.
Detroit guns, riots, 1967, pistol on my car seat.
Police were on the backside of my license plates.
When will these war, poems end?
Forty-three years out back to the past
revival forward, carry lead shield.
Elders, children, and friends,
make judgments to this day.
Do not get fancy with words.
Warrior is/was a sinner, a history maker.
Sleep peaceful in dust of history.
Mystify confidence, cleverness in my eyes.
We are now warriors of old age, wrinkles.
Never less let rules of age, engage, and conquer.
Everyone is a short stubbed sentence
like Ernest Hemingway,
choose your weapon, draw.
Politics is a long-term whore
fortunate some died:
Nixon, Johnson.
Where do the corpses lie, where did the corpses
die, war is time, grass, dustcover, all.
I am 69, too old for wars, spirited words, and anticipation.
Years of thought become a foreign disease.
Life pools itself on a new generation of warriors.
Hear the sounds of cricket’s sounds of doves.
Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era. He is a Canadian and USA citizen. Today he is a poet, editor, publisher, freelance writer, amateur photographer, small business owner in Itasca, Illinois. He has been published in more than 930 small press magazines in 30 countries, and he edits 10 poetry sites. Author’s website http://poetryman.mysite.com/. Michael is the author of The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom (136 page book) ISBN: 978-0-595-46091-5, several chapbooks of poetry, including From Which Place the Morning Rises and Challenge of Night and Day, and Chicago Poems. He also has over 120 poetry videos on YouTube as of 2015: https://www.youtube.com/user/
Visit his Facebook Poetry Group and join https://www.facebook.com/
