David Reinertson
August 1st, 2007
No Skald in Song Hath Told
Gonzales had always
sort of wanted to be a hero,
and everybody would watch
him going down the street
with his medals,
and they'd say
"That's Gonzales, the hero!"
and he even thought of the President
giving his mother the medals
and everybody crying,
but Gonzales died in 8-feet
of cruddy swamp water
holding up Cpl. Jefferson
with the shell fragment
in his chest,
and nobody found them,
and there weren't any medals,
just two missing reports.
There's never a just-right time
to be a hero.
--Winn Starr, 1970 or so