The Agent

I am the reminder.
I am a herald of sorrow and anguish..
Pain and misery precede me on my appointed rounds.
I collect on debts owed.  I am the keeper of receipts.
My list of diagnosis grows.  I grow.
I am the Agent.

Through the years my disguises are many.
The result is the same.
I am irresistible, unstoppable, though once preventable, now terminal.
Final.
Look here to the dark angel of a generation misguided  and mismanaged.
I am the way to this inglorious and undeserved end.
I have the last word.
I am the Agent.

I am the instrument of early demise ongoing.
I am a corrupter of men's ideal and intentions.
I am the Agent.

Some will escape me.  Not many.  All will know of me.
I know whom I have gotten and who yet remains.
I have the last word.
I am the Agent.  I am dioxin.  I am Agent Orange.

~In Memory of~
John L. Norton
US Army
9/1941 to 3/2006
A.O. Victim