The Personal Space of Norman Milliken « Poetry «
a note on Walt's suicide
we ran so fast,
Walt,
and never got home.
just tired.
more than thirty years
now, and I can't remember
sleeping one night
straight through.
I want to think
you're somewhere
where you can sleep
without dreaming.
no more war.
no more hospital.
I miss you.
Walt cracked up in Vietnam after most of his platoon was killed in an attack near Monkey Mountain. I had been at Parris Island with him, and saw him next in the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in the winter of '69. He was hard to control so they loaded him up on barbiturates until he was a zombie. He was eventually discharged, went home, couldn't shake the addiction, and killed himself just before Easter, 1976.
Norm on June 2 2008 edit · delete I learned of Walt's death when I went to see him the Saturday before Easter Sunday, 1976. We were at my in-law's, which was only about 30 miles from Walt's home. His mother answered the door, saw me, and walked back inside the house without saying a word. Walt's brother came out and told me what had happened. It was a difficult holiday that year.
