Years of the Rat

1972 --
I am four years home
from two tours in Vietnam.
I am shaken, not stirred.
I am wounded, body and soul.
MLK and Bobby Kennedy are
also four years gone. They
say the troops are coming home,
but I hear the storm so many
miles away. Nixon is re-elected;
McGovern is smashed. Four more
years scream the electorate
and the electoral college.
Four more years and the
American Bicentennial will come --
the Spirit of '76 two hundred
years on. 
I'm a junior in college.
I still can't sleep.
My heart still breaks.
My dreams will not let me be.

Awaiting 2008 --
thirty-six years later
and the storm still rumbles
far away. The Rat is back
for the New Millenniium.
I am old and tired.
I still can't sleep.
Those dreams will
never let me be.