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Poem of the Month: February 2005

New Hampshire, February 7, 2003 It's snowing again. All day, reruns of the blizzard of '78 newscasters vying for bragging rights how it was to go hungry after they'd thumped the vending machines empty the weatherman clomping four miles on snowshoes to get to his mike so he could explain how three lows could collide to create a lineup of isobars footage of state troopers peering into the caked windows of cars backed up for white miles on the interstate. No reruns today of the bombings in Vietnam 2 million civilians blown apart, most of them children under 16, children always the least able to dive for cover when all that tonnage bursts from a blind sky. Snow here is weighting the pine trees while we wait for the worst: for war to begin. Schools closed, how the children love a benign blizzard a downhill scrimmage of tubes and sleds. But who remembers the blizzard that burst on those other children? Back then we called it collateral damage and will again. - Maxine Kumin Journal prompts: Write about a blizzard or snowstorm you've experienced. Do you remember the Vietnam War? What were your thoughts and feelings on the war then? As you look back on it through the lens of history, what are your thoughts and feelings on it now? The Iraq War has now been underway for nearly two years. How did you think/feel about it in its earliest days? Have your thoughts and feelings changed as the war has unfolded? If there is a serviceperson in your life, write a (sent!) letter. If you do not know a serviceperson, search the internet for an organization that will forward your letter.

The Poems of the Month are copyrighted in the names of the individual authors, and are reproduced here for educational and therapeutic purposes.

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