The Big Birds (poem)

THE BIG BIRDS

A poem by Jane Piirto. © All Rights Reserved.

Written and read for Open reading, A Gathering of Poets,  Kent State University, 25th anniversary of Kent State shootings

in 1970 the B-52’s lined up

at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base

in Gwinn, Michigan

the Upper Peninsula

were painted sky blue

on their bellies

camouflage green and brown

on their backs

so when they dropped

napalm and bombs

they couldn’t be spotted

from below or above

these planes in the Midwest

called Birds

by their managers

stood out huge

in the blueberry forest

on runways on the sand plains

behind chain links on the base

these very planes

flew to Vietnam

through Guam

and the Philippines

reminders to us remote northerners

of what the pilots and navigators

who lived among us did at work

“We are just in a quiet, dark room”

one of my students, a navigator, said

“Lights blink, gauges beep.

All is quiet.  It is very restful.

We get the orders from the ships

find the coordinates

and fly in

“We are so high, miles high

we barely feel it

when we loose the bombs.

Same thing with napalm.

If we bother to look down

“we see a flame

small as a match in a cave.

We’re home in a couple of days.

I come to class.”

After the killings at Kent State

I went out with my daughter, Denise

9 months old, in the backpack

my son, Steven, 6, at my side

my Another Mother For Peace necklace on.

“War Is Not Healthy For Children

And Other Living Things”

collecting donations

in the trailer court

where we lived in Marquette, Michigan

passing useless petitions

to stop the bombing in Cambodia.

Two of my neighbors slammed the doors.

Others gave a dollar, two, five

for me to send somewhere

to some central place

in hope

our children

would not be murdered

when they go to college.

So far it’s worked.