Children in the Darkness ( Task 1 )

Henry M Bechtold was in Vietnam during 1967 - 1968. During that period of time, there was a war raging and he witnessed what was happening. Although he rarely talked about it, he could never close that chapter in his life. Thus, he always goes back there every now and then. He wrote this poem during one of his visits in 2009. He was in his hotel room in Saigon watching the news channel on the television. At the same time, he was finding inspiration to write another poem on the mistreatment of girls by men when a picture of a young boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle in hand flashed on the news channel. This reminded him of the Vietnam war that happened during the late 1960s and immediately, began to pen down his feelings of the war and it resulted in this poem.