THE FORGOTTEN HERO

by Author Paul Hughes

"The Forgotten Hero” reflects the challenges faced by the thousands of young men conscripted to fight in Australia’s wars. When they returned home, many were shunned, victimised and not helped to readjust to society. It took 50 years before Vietnam War soldiers were fully recognised, by which time around one third had died.

THE FORGOTTEN HERO

The old man lifted his head and stared, 

A sea of faces, but no-one cared;

His overcoat so thin and torn, 

His tired body so stooped and forlorn.

He shuffled down the dirty street,

The gutter soaking battered feet

Through shoes he found one Father’s Day.

Someone’s father had thrown them away.

He staggered, fell, and lying there,

Began to cry in quiet despair.

As the tears rolled down his craggy face

He reflected on his fall from grace.

At seventeen he’d answered the call 

To fight the war that would save us all,

Within a year he felt one hundred and one,

As all his mates had died by the gun.

When he came home, eight medals he wore, 

His former friends were all at his door,

But friends and medals didn’t rate

When he needed food to fill his plate.

At night while others were asleep,

His nightmares did him company keep.

The choking gas, the deafening noise

As every day they lost more boys.

Perhaps this was, he sadly reflected,

Why each job he’d sought he’d been rejected;

Or when he arrived home that day

To find his wife and child had moved away.

The tears rolled faster down his cheeks,

He’d hardly eaten these past few weeks.

He thought he heard a drumming beat,

Saw soldiers marching up the street.

Perhaps, he thought, they’d comprehend, 

Why an old soldier might just need a friend.

He struggled to his feet to speak,

But collapsed again, for he was weak.

As he lay there in the gutter

He heard one soldier laugh, then mutter.

“Why should we have to fight,” he said,

“They should send drunks like that instead!”

The old man closed his eyes again.

He felt no hunger, cold or pain.

They buried him in an unmarked grave.

A forgotten hero of yesterday.

© Paul Hughes