not First Blood: Part II or Rambo III
but the first time John Rambo
walked into Hope, BC
[spoiler alert]
all PTSD’d from the Vietnam war
his best buddy dead from agent orange
on the bridge just outside town
the sheriff couldn’t leave
well enough alone
didn’t know what Rambo
had been through
had to stitch up
his own damn arm
with a thread and needle,
made a shirt from a burlap sac,
and eventually blew up
Hope’s only gas station
all because that sheriff
couldn’t show a drifter
Vietnam vet with PTSD
some goddamn compassion
Matthew Lovegrove lives in the traditional, unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh Nation, works as a Curator in a small-town museum, and has released a series of folk albums under the name woodland telegraph. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Red Alder Review, Train: a poetry journal, and Dwelling Literary. Send help, learning to twitter @mwlovegrove