When I first began research for my historical fiction novel about World War II, I wanted to include a scene that dealt with the bombs. I collected many materials – first-hand accounts, histories, etc. and got to work. It would be a very emotional experience for me, much more so than I expected. Stories from survivors about these two attacks left me devastated and disturbed. I could barely handle the accounts of it, I truly cannot even imagine having gone through it in person. My heart cracked so deeply that I had to stop the research, and my plans to include the bomb in my narrative were scrapped. Because even as a writer, I could not find the right words for this event. All I managed to eek out was this poem. I think it’s important that we always remember these events – for they should never… EVER… be repeated.
LET ME TELL YOU HOW I DIED
PART I – SEGMENT 6
The Bomb
The only warning we got was a flash
Before Hiroshima was turned to ash
A flash like lightning, it seared the flesh
It burned us hot, made our skin and clothes mesh
Then the bang blasted everything apart
Buildings, churches, and people’s hearts
The mushroom cloud towered in the sky
Seen from miles away with the naked eye
Hiroshima turned from a great city of old
To a burned out, black, and nuclear hole
Thousands of corpses burned down to the bone
Many people left wounded, forsaken, and alone
The screams of pain from the heat and burns
The city’s on fire while the fallout churns
No water to be found to quench our thirst
Of all the ways to die, this is one of the worst
I was walking the street on that horrible day
Along came the flash and I was blown clear away
Turned into vapor, I vanished from sight
But I left you my shadow to remember my plight
To Be Continued…
This is the second-to-last segment of the first part of a big giant poem I wrote over a few months (the next two parts cover WWI and the Civil War – stay tuned for those next year!) The last segment of WWII will be up next! But before you get to that, read the previous segments here:
Intro and Segment 1 – The Blitz
Segment 7 – coming soon!