Napalm A True Story

Napalm

What makes me hate war?
Sure the deaths of the young men.
But when did it happen?
What was the moment
that my discomfort was replaced
by my hatred of violent conflict.

The war planes roared above
the village in Vietnam.
A little girl heard the noise overhead
A voice screamed get out get out
The bombs are coming

She ran out of the little shack
Out into the conflict.
Out into a part of hell.
Out into history.

Her picture became the
Conscience of nations.
The napalm fell
It burned away her thin dress
Her flesh set alight
and the village
trees and shacks ignited
In napalms fury.

Tumbling canisters flopped
Like eggs from the sky.
Spreading petroleum jelly napalm.
Sticking to anything or anyone.

And she was naked her tiny
thin girl child’s body maimed
In agony by war.
Even in her pain
She was worried
By the human thought
I will be different
I will be ugly.
Her picture became iconic
And the world blushed in shame

It was not her time to die
But she showed the world
The power of one.
One tiny naked little girl
Covered in mans horror
Dealt upon man.

And she changed me forever.

Jue Kyrie