1981:
At a time in life
When my biggest worries were
Puberty, bullies, the Child Killer & the K.K.K.,

World War 2
Was re-enacted
By the neighbourhood kids & me.
Every little thing

I learned from military history books
About “The Good War”
Came out
Through play.

Some days,
My block was 1944 Europe, maybe France.
Some others,
An island in the South Pacific.

We did frequent
Battles against ourselves.
American Army vs. Nazis.
American Marines vs. Japanese.

We wielded broken table legs & water pistols
Like they were M3 “grease guns” & Colts.
Shoot ’em up fun. The Rat Patrol reruns
Made war action look easy.

At least
When we fought, we kids
Would die in pretend combat
And lived to fight another day.

Absent from our young
Adventure-hungry minds
Were the costs of
“The Good War”:

Casualties
On the field & in bombed-out cities.
Soldiers returning home in coffins covered in stars and stripes.
Then I began to question if any war is any good—

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W: Ferguson/Nagasaki Anniversary 2023

The Child Killer: Wayne Williams—imprisoned for life for the murder of 2 men and 30 Black children in Atlanta [ 1979-1981 ].

M3 “grease guns”: 45-calibre sub-machine guns. First used by the United States Army in 1942. Replaced the Thompson [ “Tommy gun” ].

Colts: Automatic single-action/double-action pistols produced by American firearms company Colt.

The Rat Patrol : American War TV programme. Ran on A.B.C. For 2 seasons, 58 episodes [ 1966-1968 ]. Following the adventures of 4 Allied soldiers—3 Americans, 1 English—on a long-range desert patrol in North Africa during WW2—and fighting the Nazis’ Afrika Korps.

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Dee Allen – African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 8 books–Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black [ all from POOR Press ], Elohi Unitsi [ Conviction 2 Change Publishing ], Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate [ Vagabond Books ], Plans [ originally Nomadic Press, now re-issued from Black Lawrence Press ] and coming in February 2024, Crimson Stain [ EYEPUBLISHEWE ]–and 72 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.