Monsoon Delight: by Loyd Cates

Monsoon Season During Vietnam War

This is the peak of the monsoon season in South Vietnam. It is miserable in the jungle.

Monsoon Delight

by Loyd Cates

The rain is relentless day after day
Nothing you do keeps the ringworm away
Jungle rot eats at your crotch
All you can do is scratch and watch

You share your blood with the devious leech
They affix themselves where you can’t reach
While those nasty bastards suck you dry
The relentless rain conceals the sky

Just trying to eat becomes a chore
Go away rain, you relentless whore
The water flows like a flooded creek
I ain’t slept in a friggin’ week

Rusty gear will get you killed
Cleaning your rifle becomes a skill
But you better do it if you want to live
You only have one life to give

Big assed mosquitoes have one hell of a bite
They swarm your body both day and night
You do what you can just to endure
But they are a plague, that’s for damn sure

No matter how wet it’s always hot
This humid air is thick as snot
I am sick of this rain but it don’t matter
The mosquitoes and leeches just keep getting fatter

One of these days I will board that jet
Never again will my ass be wet
This relentless rain, months of it
Monsoon rain, I’m sick of this shit.

SSG Cates RVN '69-'70
199th Light Infantry Brigade D5/12

Also by Loyd Cates:

Maybe Tomorrow

The Sport of Kings

Memorial Day: by Loyd Cates

“I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do, and by the grace of God, I will.” ~Everett Hale


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Memoirs From Nam is YOUR blog.

Saving Tears: by Doyle Watters

Weary Looks in our Eyes ...

Saving Tears

We brothers gathered in silence with weary looks in our eyes.
So many years had passed, still our reflections remained painful.
Comfort of mind, there's no such thing, until self is accepted.
We looked like anyone else, I guess, from the outside looking in.
We talked rice paddies, jungles, and bombs that fell on Hill 875.
Been a long time, we'd been saving tears, for this mournful cry.

Logic was set aside to chase the unknown without knowledge.
Imagination had held us captive, as we've pondered the whys.
Years stole our memories, but dared not to touch our scars.
Nightmares kidnapped sleep, laughing at the anguish it caused.
Post traumatic stress disorder we've all been deeply affected.
Been a long time, we'd been saving tears, for this mournful cry.

My health is slipping quickly someone said, mine too the reply.
They sprayed us with chemicals, sent us home to rot and die.
Drunken nobodies, without jobs some were labeled and scorned.
A black granite wall built to jog the silence of a past which slept.
It dances to the rhythm of motion, in the darkest of midnights.
Been a long time, we'd been saving tears, for this mournful cry.

From mother earth we were all slung, into uncertainties of life.
Lost at the controls of society, we search for what lies beyond.
Hoping those young lives, that gave their all, we'll see again.
Our intentions to go, and return whole, but none of us did.
Yet, youth allowed us to solidify an everlasting brotherhood.
Been a long time, we'd been saving tears, for this mournful cry.

CSM Doyle Watters 

Vietnam Veteran
US Army Retired

Other Articles by Doyle Watters

Sharing the Burden, Vet to Vet
A Flag's Declaration

The Defender

“I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do, and by the grace of God, I will.” ~Everett Hale


Feel free to comment on this post. You are also invited to write about anything you feel comfortable sharing. Memoirs From Nam is YOUR blog. You are writing America's history, sharing the truth about the Vietnam veteran, and what it was like in Our War.