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.