There was tumult and the taste of salt on my upper lip
Turnings and airplanes and cold beds with multiple siblings
Where was I and when would it stop?
The night air raids were the worst
Begun with swift pulling down of blackout drapes
Dinner and early lights out no exceptions
because they could see our quarters if revealed
from the air if we even peeped out for a moment
And we would be reported and my father black marked
They had their exercises, their military preparedness
Oiled the machines, marched the soldiers in lines
Rumbled the old tanks for some general’s visit
These dressup military games were the business of the base
Children ran amongst the converted WWII barracks
And grass grew in sidewalk cracks and behind chain link fences
One night the low flying bombers came roaring overhead
Was this the night? Was this it? Little heart pounded.
But, I must not stir to wake my older sibling goliath
For she would shame me for my tears
Cold tracks slid down the side of my face and filled my ears
So still did I become in order for her not to know I held my breath.
That a nightmarish world war terror flew overhead at night.
In daytime, I read of Nuremberg war trials
The Stars and Stripes newspaper reported details
In tiny print and black and white with a finger
I could string together the few words
Someone had taken off their skin while alive
How could this happen where could we be
Mother said we were invited and defeated
A great enemy who might still pop out of a bunker
We could not be sure but we stayed strong
Because we were from land of the free and home
Of the brave somewhere far away and oceans apart
My body remembered those long hours planked
inside military transport prop planes over cement gray waves
Oceans to cross and worlds away the daddy’s stayed strong
We had won a war, mommy told me, and now the world is safer
But, not for long she had to tell me the rest
That, war is caused by greed and she told my tear-stained face
That she did not see an end to greed in my lifetime.
I’m glad my mother told me the truth.
I did have two feet and if war broke out at school
I could always run home, she said don’t let them catch you
My two feet have been running ever since
They are the only things which have travelled with me
Through continents and mountain ranges and treadmill of time
My same two feet are with me now
And, what if mommy what if a melting weapon comes
And, there is no home to return to, it is gone
She said the answer is the same thing honey
To look at our two feet, and know
Those two feet are the only things that go with us on our road
And, if we someday find our homes blown and our town gone
To make peace with our same good feet,
To make our new home where I stand
And, out of that tornado of early years
Like rock out of hobbyist gem tumbler
We are all tumbling together like this
Small chips on shoulders grazed off by friends
If we are lucky enough the decades sculpt
Around us a geode of angles and prismatic lights
Like looking in a dressing table mirror where faces multiply
And images spill into each other forever
The kaleidoscope of childhood settles in old age
Vignettes of colored glass captured in stained glass
I can remember being seven years old
And knowing that adults kill children in war
And nobody seems to care or listen to the children.
That child is within me still
She is the voice I never let go.
I will never forget what it is like to be a child
And see how our world is killing children.
I never lost my dog tags nor forgot the children.
I have carried them with me to this day.
I have run from danger and fought life threatening mud
Over decades I have come to see the world is the same
Our planet is still burning with hate and also coral bells now bloom in the spring.
The fire is still burning and the children are still home.
radfemisphere 