Portside

Here We Go Again

By Jan Barry

Here we go again,

Back in the saddle again,

War in Europe again,

Where “Kilroy was here”—

3rd Infantry Division, paratroop combat brigades,

B-52 bombers, fighter squadrons

On the move to front line positions

Facing the bearish threat of yore—

Been there before,

I grew up training to fight the Russians,

Hunkering in school hallways

In nuclear war drills—

Now a new generation of GIs

Is headed into the war zone

To face off with the Russian army

Rampaging across Ukraine—

Flashbacks flash across the TV,

Across my brain—

Dragging me back in time

To the world war where I was born

Jan Barry is a co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. His poetry first appeared in Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans.