Up until I was about 10 years old my family owned a crawfish pond outside of Gueydan, Louisiana. That's deep down in Vermilion Parish. Not too far from the Mermentau River. Most days we'd take the back roads and we'd always pass this old grey faded house. In the front yard there'd be a man walking back and forth in a daze. Nothing on but a pair of long johns and combat boots.
One day I worked up the courage to ask my dad about that man. He told me he'd been in the Vietnam War. His boots were on American soil but his mind was far off in the burning villages of Pinkville.