Adrian Mitchell

To Whom It May Concern

Adrian Mitchell - To Whom It May Concern (Vietnam war poem)



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To Whom It May Concern





I was run over by the truth one day.

Ever since the accident I've walked this way

So stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.



Heard the alarm clock screaming with pain,

Couldn't find myself so I went back to sleep again

So fill my ears with silver

Stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.



Every time I shut my eyes all I see is flames

Made a marble phone book and I carved all the names

So coat my eyes with butter

Fill my ears with silver

Stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.



I smell something burning, hope it's just my brains.

They're only dropping peppermints and daisy-chains

So stuff my nose with garlic

Coat my eyes with butter

Fill my ears with silver

Stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.



Where were you at the time of the crime?

Down by the Cenotaph* drinking slime

So chain my tongue with whisky

Stuff my nose with garlic

Coat my eyes with butter

Fill my ears with silver

Stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.



You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out,

You take the human being and you twist it all about

So scrub my skin with women,

Chain my tongue with whisky

Stuff my nose with garlic

Coat my eyes with butter

Fill my ears with silver

Stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.



*Cenotaph - war memorial in London

First read out in Trafalgar Square in 1964. Read again Saturday 13 October 2001 at the Anti-War demonstration in London .

"It is about Vietnam , But it is still relevant. It's about sitting faithfully in England while thousands of miles away terrible atrocities are being committed in our name.''



Biographical Note:



Adrian Mitchell was born in 1932 and educated at Oxford. After coming down in 1955 he worked for some years on the staff of the Oxford Mail, and subsequently with the London Evening Standard. Mitchell's early poetry showed a fondness for tight stanzas and a use of myth, but there was always a kind of agonised human concern about his writing which marked him off sharply from his more tight-lipped contemporaries. This concern has developed over the years into a full-fledged political commitment, and there is no other poet in England who has more steadily focussed his aesthetic aims through his social ones. It would not be too much to say that a poem such as 'To Whom It May Concern' altered the conscience of English poetry, and for many younger writers Mitchell is already the elder statesman of literary protest. He has made enemies through this, and there are still critics who refuse to accept his importance. But there are few poets now writing who can command a wider general audience, and none who can swing such an audience more effectively from public laughter to near tears.