Title
Preview
Creation Date
2008
Description
Gouache on Tyvec, varnished. 16" x 20".
Accompanying Poetry:
BEAUTIFUL WRECKAGE
W.D. Ehrhart
What if I didn’t shoot the old lady
running away from our patrol,
or the old man in the back of the head,
or the boy in the marketplace?
Or what if the boy—but he didn’t
have a grenade, and the woman in Hue
didn’t lie in the rain in a mortar pit
with seven Marines just for food,
Gaffney didn’t get hit in the knee,
Ames didn’t die in the river, Ski
didn’t die in a medevac chopper
between Con Thien and Da Nang.
In Vietnamese, Con Thien means
place of angels. What if it really was
instead of the place of rotting sandbags,
incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud.
What if the angels were Ames and Ski,
or the lady, the man, and the boy,
and they lifted Gaffney out of the mud
and healed his shattered knee?
What if none of it happened the way I said?
Would it all be a lie?
Would the wreckage be suddenly beautiful?
Would the dead rise up and walk?
Rights
All artwork by Jane Irish is legally protected by U.S. & International copyright laws. Images may be used for educational use but under NO circumstance may they be used for commercial purposes without proper and prior permission from the artist. Unauthorized duplication or usage for commercial purposes is prohibited by copyright law. "Beautiful Wreckage," by W.D. Ehrhart, copyright 1999.