Background info: Henry M Bechtold was in, sitting in his hotel room in Saigon, trying to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and how badly men treat them. He looked at news on TV. In the background was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle.
Poem:
There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight
Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free
Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance
Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole
Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light
Henry M Bechtold
In any war, the children will be pure as they will not be at the battlefield to kill nor witness death of others. However, in this poem, the poet says that “children (are) in the darkness, who someone will teach them how to fight”. He is trying to say that in a war, there is actually no one that is innocent, as everyone will witness death and even kill. Children are supposed to school and learn to read and dance, but they are only able to fight in a war, which will not only pollute their minds, it might also take their lives away. War is a cruel environment that innocent children should not try to get involved in it.
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