Nameless Among the Named

I wrote this before even going to DC to see the Vietnam War monolith - I saw pictures that my mother brought home with her and imagined the feeling of it.

Black and shiny

            I am drawn into its depth

First one name, then more

            So many thousands more

Name upon name

            Broken only by the memories

left by those who cannot forget . . .

 

There, a small pair of neatly laid pajamas

            Worn by a boy so many years ago

                        By a name, right there, upon the wall

Now clean and empty.

There, a football jersey,

game worn and stained with sweat by a boy so many years ago

                        By a name, there, upon the wall

                                    Now clean and empty.

There, a vase that once held the yellow rose of a hurried but sincere proposal,

            Love unfulfilled, a vow never spoken

                        By a name, there, upon the wall.

                                    Now clean and empty.

 

At an angle, nearby monuments to our leaders

            Reflect off the shiny black surface of marble

                        Paying homage to those men who without fail

`                                    send each generation of our children off to war.

A chill moves up my back and through my chest

            I shiver as I pass through the emotional space left by another

who just seconds before recognized a name,

there, upon the wall.

I find myself involuntarily filled with the overwhelming loss,

With an undefined sadness and regret,

With pride too, yet with an awkward shame and a guilty anger.

I cannot help but feel that the heart of us all,

once filled with the promise of each name,

                        Is here shown to be shiny and clean,

                             but truly empty.

 

I turn … I face the wall,

I look past the reflected monuments and the names become a blur

                        And I face the inescapable truth. . .

I am there also,

my image reflected on the wall

                        I must face it, the inescapable truth . . .

It is my reflection that shares the wall

            I am there too

Nameless among the named.        

copyright - Thomas J. Dennis

Reviews

[Teresa B]

I like this. Time passes more quickly than we even can imagine. And we , too, we will be a part of history one day.