Student’s Poem Catches War Mood

Derek Gordon is an 11th-grader in my American literature class at John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills. Recently he had an assignment to write a poem in the style of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.”

I am proud of this original poem. Not only does it capture Poe’s style but it also comments on the Gulf crisis. This is war as seen through the eyes of an 11th-grader.

LYNN LERTZMAN, Granada Hills

War!

Once upon a morning hazy, something happened, something crazy,

O’er a timeworn and historic chapter on a foreign shore.

Newsmen said there was no order, troops had crossed the Kuwait border.

Taking control of a nation, Iraq clearly wanted more--

Wanted more of precious oil that was surely kept in store.

Quoth Saddam, “‘Twas ours before.”

To the U.N. countries pleaded, sanctions were most greatly needed.

U.S. leaders even sent its soldiers to the foreign shore.

Months went by and time was fleeting--louder war drums soon were beating.

Hostages were liberated from their bondage of before.

Mr. Bush said, “Wait some more.”

As the fifteenth hearkened nearer, time with loved ones became dearer

When the soldiers went by thousands, knowing not what was in store.

Talks for peace were sparsely numbered, so the public greatly wondered,

Could the worst be truly coming? Is this desert worth the fighting for?

Protests were held like the Sixties, people sat-in as ‘twas done before.

Still said Bush, “Let’s go to war!”

So what shall lie ahead, our fate, I guess we’ll have to sit and wait,

Hussein and Bush will have a war like no one’s ever seen before.

Tears will fall from mothers’ eyes, as sons will kill and sons will die,

Bombing raids and missile launches will fill the news with blood and gore.

As you wait and worry lonely, please do one thing, I must implore--

Hope for peace and nothing more.