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Someone Said a Pearl for a Harbor

(7 December 1941, an invocation)

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Whom shall we honor

Today?

The citizens of Hawaii

Who died then

For strategy

On two sides

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The crews

Of small submarines

That tried to get through

And sank somewhere

Close by

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Mostly, the soldiers

We should honor

For the loss of life,

By the by material

That could (by the by)

Cost a war

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Honor convictions?

How shall they be

Dispersed?

On either side,

There might be recognition

Even under actions

Worse for horror and

A lack of declaration

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I don’t know,

There were people everywhere:

Many termed the enemy

Who were not in any way

An enemy

Taken to camps

Frankly

For looking different

(I say exotic and

of the USA—the

ubiquitous they

say the difference

lay in espionage,

so we became

the creepers

and the judges);

We hadn’t done so

To the urban Germans here

Or in our suburbs,

On the farms

Or to the Italians

Though I wouldn’t be surprised

To hear

They weren’t treated well

In the environs

Of duration

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We sent to camps

Then tried not to think

Some more about

Walled and shadowed camps

Turning into

Many of our own

For racist reasons;

We could have tasked

The FBI, the OSS

Instead

For their investigations

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There is a danger

That the battleship memorial

Might slide into the water,

As it placed one way or another

Over tombs

Of flesh and rust

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I’d hate for that happen,

For we need remembrance

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We need to remember

Many things:

God and our conscience

Make it so

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Recalling sudden loss of life,

A shining, lethal campaign of

Surprise

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Oh, we should be careful:

Watch our shores,

Keep our early systems

Early,

Though we need no longer

Look to the right and left

For enemies

Since looking right and left

Shall land on every one

Of us

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And what’s left of united?

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My families

Fought inside this war

That we remember;

Some could still

Tell stories

That tend to

Try the young to hear

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On this day remember, then—those

Who could see and hear

And taste and touch,

Who suddenly

Lost all the senses

Along with mortal life,

The joy of daily living

In a paradise

We tried to covet

For a paradise

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Farewell, we may salute

And say

All those

Who cannot call out

Except for memory,

Call out

For each other

In the fire

And the smoke

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And the few remaining

Now

Who would

Can tell us

Of the hours

And the aftermath

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Times and

Experiences

That

Soldiers, sailors, flyers—on

The ground, on deck, or in the air—

Mechanics and KP,

Bystanders

Try not to talk about

So much

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C L Couch

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Photo by Kyle Chicoine on Unsplash

Birds by the Bay

Ocean Shores, United States

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