TerryWooten

Cornered

A lot of memories are all mixed up
and turned around.

Wave after wave of Japanese bombers
came in over Manila
and flattened everything
including the Russian and Spanish mansions.

After four months only five of our planes
were left.
If we'd had someplace to go
we would've gone,
but there was no place.
So we pulled back
to the Bataan Peninsula.

It's amazing how deep into the ground
you can squeeze
when machine guns are firing at you.
I don't even know how to tell you
how it feels.

We were out there
and bullets were splattering
around in the trees.
You've got to hide behind something.
Even a little stem looks big.
You'd be surprised how big.

We slept in the jungle one night.
Boy is it dark
and full of a lot of weird sounds
when you're all alone
except for whispering,
"Contact"
to another hungry and scared soldier
twenty feet away.

Like Dolls

I was about five.
After three days
of rain and fog,
I saw the second wave
of parachuters floating down
like mushrooms out of the sky…
thousands and thousands of them
up in the air
and being shot.

It wasn't even a battle
because they didn't even have their guns
ready.
I saw them dead.
They looked like dolls that had fallen down
lying in a field.

Blondie

Allied soldiers
who must have been survivors and conquerors
camped out right by our house.
They were grubby and smiling,
I guess happy to be alive.

Australians, English, Polish and Americans…
they'd call, "Hey, Blondie,
come here,"
because I had white hair.

I'd go right up and talk to them
with my little apron,
and they'd fill it
with chocolates and chewing gum
and stuff from their rations.

They seemed happy
always joking with the little girl.
Because my name was Hannie
they called me, "Honey".
Everybody thought that was so cute.
That's how I had my first chocolate bar.

There's nothing
like a little girl
to cheer up troops
who'd been through donder.

Then I'd go home and share my treats
with everybody.