Carolina Motorcycle Events

Boondock Bards

QUANG TRI VALLEY
by
Lt. Carey S. Jackson
B Btry., 94th Arty.

Extracted from the Pacific Stars and Stripes Feb 7th 1967 issue.

As I walk upon the once-green fields,
Beneath a dark'ning sky,
I am part of all that once has been,
Where now cruel war must lie.
In the valley before me,
Gaunt trees stand that once sweet fruit did bear;
Mangoes maybe, or apricots,
Or leaves of spring they'd wear.
Rice paddies, dry and untended,
Skeletons, long forgotten now.
Land that's lost to all but Hell,
Yet aches to feel the farmer's plow.
I see ghosts of old men,
Bent-backed, carrying hoes and aprons full of seed.
Marching single file to their fields of toil,
To reap the blood the earth must bleed,
The weathered bones of bamboo huts,
Are all that's left to mark this land,
And let this lonely soldier standing here,
Know peace was once at hand.