HELP ME!

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by Michael Bradshaw

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Help me! Help me! How do I mend this wound in my soul? It seems there's no cure and I've tried and I've tried but nothing I've tried seems to ease the terrible pain. A wound so deep that mere sutures are quite useless. Through all of the medications and attempts at therapy only brief periods of solitude or serenity. How do I ease this hell that follows me both day and night? Asleep or awake it really doesn't matter 'cause those Demons that I battled so long ago in that place called Vietnam are still with me where ever I go.

I was young, free-spirited and filled with all the dreams and aspirations of that youth. I could've roped the moon or been famous or even President of the United States. Scoot over Mr. Einstein. Let's sit and talk of relativity and of the space-time continuum. Come lie back on my couch Mr. Freud. We can further explore the depths of your Id, Ego and Alter Ego. In youth, it seems, the possibilities are endless and probability only an obstacle to overcome.

So young and so full of righteousness and patriotic exuberance that I failed to recognize my naivety. So off I go to stop evil communism from spreading the plague of oppression throughout the less prominent countries and peoples of the world. A most valiant and honorable endeavor, or so I believed.

All that I honestly believed to be right and true and just was ripped away and blown to pieces leaving naught but pain and guilt and sorrow and aloneness. The physical wounds have healed many years hence but not so the gaping wounds in my heart and mind and soul.

So help me please! Help me mend these wounds? All that I've tried has been in vain and I grow weary. Please lend me your strength that I may carry on and some day achieve the inner peace and serenity that I so dearly seek! Help me. He-l-l-p-p Me-e-e-e!



Michael Bradshaw
Disabled Vietnam Combat Veteran