Rainbow Death

America did not foresee

Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!

Expecting others to pay a high price.

Now thinking twice?

Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.

Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.

All the deceit continues to spread.

Nefariously America led astray -

Generations untold WILL pay -

Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson

Point of View: Americans wanted to win the Vietnam war badly, and would resort to anything for that. Because of that, they used the highly dangerous Agent Orange on the Vietnamese, however they did not foresee the consequence. They expected the Vietnamese "to pay a high price", but now they are "thinking twice" because the Agent Orange not only affected the Vietnamese, but also affected they themselves, "tolling on the innocent and unborn", causing innocent people to be killed.

Situation and setting:

Sadness - "toll on the innocent and unborn". Because of the war and the use of Agent Orange, many innocent people have been killed, thus causing a sad setting, together with the use of "toll", a harsh word, which means that the lives have to be sacrificed in order to win the war.

Harsh setting - "Generations untold WILL pay". By emphasizing on the word, "WILL", it causes a harsh setting as the younger generations will be paying the prices for what the older generations had caused. Also, "Expecting others to pay a high price" also creates a harsh setting as though the USA are going to make the Vietnam have a life worse than death.

Language/Diction:

"potpourri" - is a mixture of dried materials. In this poem, potpourri is used to refer to the combination of the deaths of many people caused by the combinations of the different Agents.

"toll" - is the number of deaths resulting from some particular cause such as war. In this poem, toll is used to refer to the necessary deaths/sacrifices of the people regardless whether they are from the same country for USA to win the war.

Personal response: I feel that war is harsh and kills many innocent lives. The Vietnam War caused many people to be killed and made the future generations pay for the price as they face the effects of the Agent Orange. Hence i share the same sentiments as the writer that we have to think twice before starting a war as war are not over when war are over. The effects of the war will remain and harm our future generations which are innocent, we should not make them pay for what we had done.

Author

Hubert Wilson is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. Along with a dozen or so intelligence school grads, he prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas. before being sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in southeat Asia in 1970. About half of them ended up in Da Nang , an Agent Orange hotspot. The rest of them were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, which was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang!

His health problems started approximately 15 years ago with unexplained headaches and limb pains. Four years ago his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, etc. No physician has ever diagnosed the specific illness. He suspected that it could be due to the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there. Organo-phosphate toxins may not run their toxic course until 20 to 30 years after initial exposure.

Since his brain still functions moderately well, he have turned to writing just like his late Father.

Thanks