The Death of the Innocents
The Death of the Innocents
By Elton Camp
About politics or government I take no position
In this, yet another, “horrors of war” composition
My memories of the Second World War are few
My time was occupied with what little kids do
The reasons for rationing were regularly reported
That there was a foreign war that must be supported
The attack on Pearl Harbor I don’t remember at all
Or that President Roosevelt for war on Japan did call
That atomic bombs were dropped, I didn’t know
But learned of it in school much later, though
Playing and riding my tricycle was the thing to do
A Hiroshima child my age was then doing it too
The Japanese child, I haven’t the slightest doubt
As with me, didn’t know what the war was about
I think, with horror, of that child’s searing pain
If he survived, lifelong scars were sure to remain
To praise war, some feel there are reasons to try
Let’s not forget about all the innocents who die
(Written after seeing a child's devastated tricycle on display in a Hiroshima museum)
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