The Ladling of Agent Orange
The Ladling of Agent Orange
By: Donal Mahoney
Anything can set him off.
Been that way for 40 years
since he came back from Nam.
He got spooked at dawn today
by a spider web dripping from a tree
he walked into when his dog
took him for his morning walk.
After lunch he brushed his teeth
and cried about a doctor
who died the other day.
He reads the obits every day
for names of men he served with.
His therapist believes his stress
may be magnified by contact
with Monsanto’s Agent Orange.
To win the war, America ladled it
in layers thick all over Vietnam.
He managed to avoid the Cong
but never knew about Monsanto
and the ladling of Agent Orange.
He may have stepped in it at times.
Back home, he’s shaky and unsure
but determined now to find the gook
who dropped that spider web.
He’ll take his pistol tomorrow morning.
He and the dog will watch the trees.
There’s always more than one.
Rough trip through any day in this veteran’s life back into the past. Makes you want to kill Monsanto, the government, and anybody who could generate such toxicity. Will the poison of such wars never end? The underplayed tone gets one’s hackles up. I like the irony of “To win the war, America ladled it in layers thick all over Vietnam,” “when his dog took him for his morning walk,” and “There’s always more than one.”