Vietnam War Poetry: Common Ground

Common Ground by Steven W. Gomes

We share common ground
My father and me.
It's a small patch
Of dead grass
In the back yard
Where we throw
The cigarettes
That we smoke
Hidden from my mother
His wife.

We're veterans
Of the same war
Though we don't talk
To each other
About it.

We go to that patch
Of ground
Alone
Hidden from each other.

It's what we share
Instead of words.