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The Wall - An Australian View
Poetry by Lachlan Irvine



THE WALL - AN AUSTRALIAN VIEW

(written after a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.)


From the wide brown land beneath the Southern Cross

Our journey ended in this sacred place;

A symbol of a generation's loss

Where the living and the dead come face to face.


The men whose names are written on the Wall

Show the true cost of war's great tragedy;

Though strangers to me, yet I know them all

Each one my brother, each one could be me.


Reflections look out from the Wall of stone

Creating images in each man's mind;

The face he recognizes as his own

Surrounded by the friends he left behind.


Look deeply into this black granite Wall

And you will find a mirror to your soul.



Lachlan Irvine

For more Vietnam War poems, return to the Vietnam War Poetry Page.

Vietnam War Poetry