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Can Your Hear Me? (poem)

By Eugene Lee Neese, Jr.

Just now I remembered long ago
When I sat on the side of a mountain
And far up above me in the clear blue sky
An airplane circled towards the south faintly.
One could here the props, but I could not
Talk to it.

My radio was shattered beyond repair.
The back-up radio had disappeared in a
Violent burst of grays and dirt.

There were six of us when once
We numbered 24.
The green of the valley poked
Its tendrils up towards us and
Rocks and holes were all around us.

I couldn't talk to the airplane
Flying so high up above.
Silence except for an
Occasional buzzing sound that
Announced the presence of an AK-47.

And above me in the clear blue sky
An airplane winging its way to the
Horizon and I couldn't talk to it.

—Eugene Lee Neese, Jr.
3d Marine, 2nd Bt. 12th Marines
Vietnam 1966-67