Contributor: Ken Williams

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You say:
You are the spokesperson
for your generation…
Except the millions who served,
suffering without voice

You say,
You are the creative genius
maker of movies
making millions
Except,
you ignore the stories
of those who served

You say,
your lyrics
speak the heart of all
Except,
you’ve never heard
a bullet
fired in anger

You claim,
your books
tell truth of the ages
Except,
you never took an oath
that separates you
to bleed and die
for your country

You stayed home,
started families
careers
chased down passions

While families
careers
and the passion for life
Beld white in
Fallujah,
Bagdad,
Afghanistan
As those dreams died
for their fathers’ and
uncles’ at
Khe Shan
A Shau Valley
Tet

You went on with life
forgetting
worse,
ignoring the forgotten ones
A generation too busy,
self-absorbed
to care for
your brothers,
sisters
who quietly bled
came home
not whole

At least the 60s
Generational Comrades
cared enough to,
rally,
fight
organize
write
sing
Creative Insurrection
to the madness of war

Your generation shouts
with silence
pursues materialism and fame
with gusto
rather than confront
the greatest injustice of all

A generation without heart
without soul
millions condemned because
they weren’t hip
aren’t cool
in the know,
Carrying the heartache of war
the loneliness of being
shut out,
forgotten

They may have been lied
into war
deceived by dishonorable
politicians
But,
abandonment by
Generational Comrades
cuts the deepest
producing the greatest pain…

The aloneness
of that abandonment
To be
forgotten
ignored
nightmares shared only
with the darkness
PTSD coloring the day
with wide brush strokes
spouses driven mad with despair

The madness ends
only when
you care enough
to raise voices
passion for something
other than yourself

In the meantime
your silence
condemns you
as it defines you
A generation
gone voiceless
in a time of
desperate need


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Ken Williams worked as a social worker for the homeless in Santa Barbara CA and severed with the WALKING DEAD—1/9 Marines in Vietnam. His literary pieces have appeared in numerous media outlets both in the U.S. and abroad. He is a combat Marine veteran of the Vietnam War. FRACTURED ANGEL is his most recent novel.