LEAST WE FORGET




turn on the TV
nightly news
Vietnam, 1972
South Vietnamese airplane swoops low
dropping canisters of death
tails of yellow and purple smoke bombs
curl around the village where
a fierce battle had been raging for days between
North and South Vietnamese soldiers

a nine-year-old girl looks up caught
in a ball of fire, canisters descending
from the sky
like pigeon dropping at a ballpark

the young girl looks up 
caught in a ball of fire
her clothes evaporate
trees lit up like
a string of Christmas lights

the young child flees naked
down the roadway
American troops behind her
her clothes burned from her body
from blistering  inferno heat
yelling, “Too hot Too hot”
as she runs down the road
away from  her burned out village
tears running down  innocent face
blobs of sticky napalm melted through
her clothes and layers of skin
like intense lava from a volcano
30% of her body scorched raw
as TV pundits played their spin
This war that we could never win
Those eyes those innocent eyes
Forever burned inside my head
                            - by A D Winans


Collage by Ginger Eades



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