LA Home Learning - Task 1

The poem that i have chosen is Children In The Darkness by Henry M. Bechtold.

The poem was written in the year 2009, during Christmas in Henry's hotel room during his stay at Saigon. He was inspired to write this poem when he saw a photo of a young boy carrying a rifle going to war in the news.

In the poem, Henry M. Bechtold talks about children who are involved in the war. In the past 20 years, there have been millions of children that have been used in war or dragged into it by their parents. They are usually used as nurses and spies. Sometimes they are used as guards of resources, general camps, drumboys, and worst of all, infantries put at the front line to test for enemy land mines.

War - A Living Hell

I sat in the boat, fearful for my life. The boat moving up and down, making me seasick, was not helping me either. I was scared for the coming battle. As we neared Omaha Beach, I started to hear the sounds of battle and hell. Artillery shells and gunshots everywhere. I heard the distinctive "ping! ping!" as the bullets hit our metal boat. This only served to intensify my fear. I thought of my family, and I feared that I would never return to them. My hands were shaking uncontrollably, the physical manifestation of my fear. Then, suddenly, I heard the whistle, and I saw the ramp lowered. Immediately, I saw my friends at the front of the boat fall amidst a cloud of red. My fear went up another notch. All of us who tried to charge forward were stopped in our tracks by the unknown gunners manning the turrets at the defensive position ahead of us. I saw people jumping off the boat into the water in a desperate bid to escape from the boat. I followed suit, plunging into the water.

In the water, the world became tranquil, albeit a tranquil, silent world with bullets diving into the water in every direction.I saw some more of my comrades stop moving in a spreading pool of red. I surfaced.

Out of the water, I felt that I had taken the boat to hell. there was fire and smoke everywhere, bullets flying, artillery shells driving into the ground, bringing up a crater-full of earth with each impact. I saw my comrades slowly and desperately moving across the beach, towards our turret wielding enemies. Seeing this, i thought "How am I going to survive this?" all around i saw each and every sign of destruction in Omaha Beach.