Index...

 

 

 

Fireflies
on the water's surface -
a house of mirrors.

 

Standing guard in the wee hours of the morning on the bow of the repair boat barge I was stationed on, was eerie, to say the least. You could never relax. Stories were told in the chow hall of Viet Cong frogmen who traveled across the small bay we were moored in, using hollow bamboo reeds to breathe through. Like ghosts, they appeared when a soldier's guard was down. The only sound during this watch was the faint lapping of waves against the barge's hull and the steady thump thump thump of my heart. In
the distance, gunships sprayed the horizon with machine gun shells laced with tracers that lit up the sky. More than once, I saw my reflection in the water. At that time of the morning, at nineteen years of age, a variety of thoughts and questions danced in and out of my mind; some deeply introspective.

 

 

 

 

Vietnam Ruminations - Robert D. Wilson
Copyright Robert D. Wilson, 2003