Veterans of the Seventies (Marvin Bell)

Veterans of the Seventies by Marvin Bell

A poem for next week's Veterans' Day. I don't have a strong sense of war history, so I am confused as to which war the veterans of the poem are from. 70s (from the title) make me think Vietnam, but the repeated word 'foxhole' makes me think WWI. Though I suppose there were probably foxholes in Vietnam as well.

It seems like they are living together in some kind of group home. Perhaps it is a psychiatric hospital? They 'went stateside without leaving the war'. That constant feeling of being at war accounts for their need to live behind a self-made fence with alarms ( 'behind fence wires  / strung through tin cans').

It's a common story - how some soldiers are unable to leave the war behind, but this telling is quite good for its brevity and density.

Favorite line: "They had the look of men who held their breath / and now their tongues."