Today Is Kent's 62nd Birthday, Happy Birthday Kent

[maks]

I wrote this poem for Kent for his birthday

We met as soulmates on Parris Inland
We left as inmates from an asylum
And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives

We came in spastic like tameless horses
We left in plastic as numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight

We had no homefront. We had no soft soap.
They sent us playboy. They gave us bob hope.
We dug in deep
and shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might

We had no cameras to shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes
And it was dark
So dark at night
And we held onto each other like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we'd write

Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood on every acre
And who was wrong? And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight

We held the day in the palm of our hands
They ruled the night and the night seemed to last as long as ...

Six weeks on Parris Island
We held the coastline, they held the high land
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the hum of the motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive