the killing fields
I hallucinated the worst was over
had traveled across fire
and rice alongside
thousands who looked nothing like me
this waking dream propelled me
back to 1972
when I was just eighteen
and volunteered to free the world
when the war ended I chose to stay
crossed state lines
as an american civilian
aiding and amusing innocent children
many times I had been captured and died
the slowest of deaths
reborn into the same fields
that used to feed a starving people
may two thousand fifteen
copyright j matthew waters
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