Oh, To Remember

They are fading, fading swiftly as a wisp of smoke. My memory clouds, and I can’t remember. Who are these fellow servicemen? Sure, I can see their faces, clear as a crystal lake. But who are they? All their names elude me as I struggle, yet nothing comes to me. From basic training to Vietnam, everyone I knew Now gone in a slow fade into nothingness. Oh, to remember their names to go with the faces I already see. The years have taken my memory and left only pictures. But even the pictures are starting to slowly disappear into that fog. Each day there is more fog and less clarity in a mind that still knows Of each individual and where I knew them from. The fading never stops, never ceases and will never return a clear view. I am alone; alone in a misty, fog-laden prison without bars From which I can not escape, but only lingering in a place Where those faces and names will slowly and surely die, as I will die.