Non-Fiction

Up Close

The total waste that is war always makes me sick inside for
the millions who have suffered and died during my lifetime

My travel over the Pacific took me to Hawaii to view up close
the monuments of sunken ships and bullet chipped buildings

In Manila and nearby towns I stood on concrete pads where
useful buildings had sheltered human beings working there

Where starvation in hard labor camps or prisons are the sad
reminders of horror dealt by occupying Japanese soldiers

A later trip to Europe took me into France and Germany for
now preserved scenes of war's price in human suffering

This permanent evidence of what conquering troops can do
to people who dared stand in the way of expanding Germany

In particular those extermination ovens for killing Jews still
defy decades of explanations acceptable to caring human beings

Travel confirms first hand what we might have learned about
wars taking the millions who might tell us how to prevent them


2007 F William Broome