Poetry Break – “Let Me Tell You How I Died” – Iwo Jima

Boy we’re moving fast through the first part of three for my poem epic.  Part I is split into seven segments and covers various angles of WWII.  Here for you is Segment 5 about the Battle of Iwo Jima and the flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi, a moment that I always find moving when I read about it.  Just think, two whole other parts (also each containing seven poems) to go!  Thanks so much to all of you for sticking with it thus far and I hope it continues to move you!

 

LET ME TELL YOU HOW I DIED

PART I – SEGMENT 5

Iwo Jima 

   It’s a small spit of land in the ocean so blue

But we must have it, it’s what we’ve come to do

We crawl ashore at this isolated place

And the tropical sun burns hot on our face

 

The sand is black, crafted in hell

The whole place is covered with a terrible smell

The enemy hides out in caves underground

It’s impossible to see them sneaking around

They hit us with guns, with artillery and fire

Still we blast up the hillside, we won’t retire

Men fall around me, blown all apart

We must reach the top, we must not lose heart!

Suddenly, I see something through the hellish smoke

Something I know, my passion invoked

There it is!  Old Glory, waving on a flag pole

At the top of Suribachi, we’ve done it!  Our goal!

But that glorious flag is the last thing I will see

Because it was then that the grenade with my name found me

Blasted me to pieces, I’m lost in the heat

Carry on Marines, for we do not retreat

 

To Be Continued…

 

To read an intro to this poem epic and how it came about, as well as the first segment, “The Blitz,” click here. 

For segment two, “Stalingrad,” click here

For segment three, “Pearl Harbor,” click here 

And segment four, “Normandy”… here.