The Path to Peace

[Jon Deisher]

In 2001 saw a letter in the newspaper from a Vietnam veteran who continued to struggle with re-integrating himself into his post military life. His surviver guilt plagued him 30 years after his departure from Vietnam. This poem was my response.

The Path to Peace.
Jon C. Deisher
April 04, 2001

Brother Warrior.
In a previous life,
I served with the U.S. Navy in the Western Pacific
And on the brown water of the Mekong River.
I, too, was a thread in the blanket spread to defend those at home:
Those whom I had never met, nor ever would.
I have lived under freedom’s umbrella held by noble, upright men at sea:
Those whom have never met me, nor ever will.
I struggled with doubt and the decisions made by those who placed men
like me in harm’s way.
Even so, I did my duty.
I have participated in deeds of which I am most proud … and not.
I have been my own worse critic:
the scourge of my conscience pinning ribbons
of fault upon my chest with my own pointing finger.
Forgiveness came from others.
In my darkness, baptismal brothers washed guilt from me.
Through their forgiveness, I forgave myself
those things in which I accidentally participated,
and was situationally but not personally responsible.

My brother, as a sailor and citizen,
I forgive you.
Own your pain and grief.
It is honest and pure.
When they lift, and they will,
forgive yourself and your brother warriors,
even when others do, or will, not.
It is the path to peace.