www.DustysPoetry.com

Lessons Learned from War:

Life is precious
Life is fragile
Never again

---Dusty -4/18/00

Before the War

"Dried Corsages"

Dusty reading "Hello, David"

Hello, David--my name is Dusty.
I'm your night nurse.
I will stay with you.
I will check your vitals
  every 15 minutes.
I will document
  inevitability.
I will hang more blood
  and give you something
  for your pain.
I will stay with you
  and I will touch your face.

Yes, of course,
  I will write your mother
  and tell her you were brave.
I will write your mother
  and tell her how much you loved her.
I will write your mother
  and tell her to give your bratty kid sister
  a big kiss and hug.
What I will not tell her
  is that you were wasted.

I will stay with you
  and I will hold your hand.
I will stay with you
  and watch your life
  flow through my fingers
  into my soul.
I will stay with you
    until you stay with me.

Goodbye, David---my name is Dusty.
I'm the last person
   you will see.
I'm the last person
   you will touch.
I'm the last person
   who will love you.

So long, David--my name is Dusty.
David--who will give me something
  for my pain?

©1987 by Dusty
"Hello, David" originally appeared in "Shrapnel in the Heart," Random House, 1987.

"Hello, David" is on the Greater Rochester, NY Vietnam Memorial (Select Service of Women)

"David" responds . . .

During the War

"Letter from Home"
"Saturday Night"
"Like Swans on Still Water"
"Mellow on Morphine"
"Like Emily Dickinson"

After the War

"Vietnam Canon"  
"Donut Dolly"
"Back in the World"
"DEROS (1968)"
"12th Evac"
"Parade (in memory of Tom Stack)"
"What Vietnam Did to My Mouth
        and other Arocities)"
"Boys' Club"
"Flashback/ICU"
"Losing It"

Complete Poetry Index

Prose

PTSD
A Letter to Newt
Nixon
My "Welcome Home"
Helping Someone to Die