GOLDEN TORTOISE, THE

Highlands Church

89 Highlands Church Between matchstick trees behind an ammo box altar he cries to God Except for army slang Jack did not learn a word of Vietnamese. For the most part, the only natives he met were prisoners. Looking back, he says, “I came to a war, not a country.” Now he is learning Viet Nam as he learns the rest of the world. And he declares that he wants to pray the way he wishes he had in the midst of falling mortars. He had not wanted to merely repeat empty words and motions for men despairing in hell. He had wanted an open heart in spite of bloodshed and terror. R Vespers The moaning wounded, the crying dead are growing quiet. His weary arms droop from signing the cross over these lost. Where mortars whistled in the long rice grass now it is only the wind. Where rifles clicked chameleons sing in new green trees. His hair is gray. His hymn is of return. R ...