When I was a teenager and young man the Vietnam War
was raging and coming to its final end. I participated in many anti-war marches
and rallies. One of the most prominent posters of the time read:
“War is not
healthy for children and other living things.”
The etching upon which this poster was based was
created by Los Angeles printmaker Lorraine Art Schneider in 1965. She donated
the etching to a women’s anti-war group called Another Mother For Peace.
The poster and sentiment rapidly permeated the large anti-war movement around
the world.
The sentiment in this etching has remained with me
ever since. Over the years I have discovered just how many ‘living things’ are
encompassed by the words.
Amongst those ‘other living things’ are the
soldiers themselves. Many came back from wars traumatised men. Many still do
from the wars around the world today. Today we know this as Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD.) During World War 1 it was known simply as shell-shock. Shell-shock
could strike down men on all sides.
I tried to capture this trauma, pain, and sorrow in a
poem titled Song For An Unknown Foe. It is written from the perspective
of a German sniper in World War 1.
Today I shot a man I did not know
Though I shot him through the head
Straight through my heart that bullet
sped
Leaving me in pain and deep sorrow.
Lying in that god forsaken muddy field
Thousands call it, name it, no-mans-land
Yet, in this confused and cratered land
Lies many a man, his guts and bones revealed.
And now another son I’ve taken from this
earth
For ‘twas my ’pon that vile trigger
Stole from him his vitality, vim, and vigour
In this wretched war of little worth.
Now I hear the Generals propound
‘He did his duty, he did it well’
Yet no pride have I, no chest to swell
No honour in that duty have I found.
When I awake with each breaking dawn
Consider that foe whose name I know not
All those others with each practiced shot
I’ll picture him lying in a soldier’s lawn.’
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