Poetry SITREP

Sounds of a Vietnam War-Era Childhood by Dana Zimbleman

Always murmuring in the background,  

the television 

taught me the alphabet game 

using words from faraway lands.

P-P-P…

Phnom Pehn

L-L-L…

Laos

A-A-A…

Agent Orange

Y-Y-Y…

Y?

Subtle sounds, soothing to a civilian child

remote and removed from sad suffering

of combatants’ children 

here and abroad

orphaned 

by the grownup game of 

War. 

Dana Zimbleman is a Professor of English & History at PPSC.