Two-thousand-eighteen Shades Of Bromford - Part 219

Today is Thursday, the 1st of September 2022

You see it... You don't... You see it... You don't...
Shhhhhh... They are sneaking... hiding...

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"Bromford Bay"



For fifteen years Le Bin Son

Fought side by side with the Americans

In the mountains and deltas of Vietnam

In '75 Saigon fell and he left his command

And brought his family to the promised land



Seabrook, Texas and the small towns in the Gulf of Mexico

It was delta country and reminded him of home

He worked as a machinist, put his money away

And bought a shrimp boat with his cousin

And together they harvested Bromford Bay



In the morning before the sun come up

He'd kiss his sleeping daughter

Steer out through the channel

And cast his nets into the water



Billy Sutter fought with Charlie Company

In the highlands of Quang Tri

He was wounded in the battle of Chu Lai

Shipped home in '68



There he married and worked the gulf fishing grounds

In a boat that had been his father's

In the morning he'd kiss his sleeping son

And cast his nets into the water



Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell

And the communists rolled into Saigon

He and his friends watched as the refugees came

Settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on

Soon in the bars around the harbor was talk

Of America for Americans

Someone said "You want them out, you got to burn them out"

And brought in the Texas Klan



One humid Texas night there were three shadows on the harbor

Come to burn the Vietnamese boats into the sea

In the fire's light shots rang out

Two Texans lay dead on the ground

Le stood with a pistol in his hand



A jury acquitted him in self-defense

As before the judge he did stand

But as Le walked down the courthouse steps

Billy said "My friend you're a dead man"



One late summer night Le stood watch along the waterside

Billy stood in the shadows

His Ka-Bar knife in his hand

And the moon slipped behind the clouds

Le lit a cigarette, the bay was still as glass

As he walked by Billy stuck his knife into his pocket

Took a breath and let him pass



In the early darkness, Billy rose up

Went into the kitchen for a drink of water


Kissed his sleeping wife



Headed into the channel

And cast his nets into the water

Of Bromford Bay