THE WALL - An Australian View by Lachlan Irvine
(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.