Poets United Midweek Motif ~ A Date "that will live in infamy," or a Bomb of a Day

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found 
himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” 
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. 
Then reimagine the world.” 
― Mary Oliver

General view of Pearl Harbor during
the Japanese air strikes on 7 December 1941,  
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation
photo No. 1996.488.029.034.

     In response to the destruction of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the USA declared war on Japan and officially joined the Ally struggle in WW2. This was the occasion of  USA President FDR's famous Infamy Speech, the source of "date that will live in infamy." 

Midweek Motif ~ 

A Date "that will live in infamy" 

or 

a Bomb of a Day

Some days are so bad that 

they force new decisions and directions.

Your Challenge: Write about a turning-point event in history or in your life.

Here are two poems to inspire:

Pearl Harbor 

By Robinson Jeffers

I.

Here are the fireworks. The men who conspired and labored

To embroil this republic in the wreck of Europe have got their bargain--

And a bushel more. As for me, what can I do but

fly the national flag from the top of the tower?

America has neither race nor religion nor its own language: nation or nothing.

Stare, little tower, 
Confidently across the Pacific, the flag on your

head. . . . 

          

          (Read the rest HERE at The Los Angeles Times.)

Incident

by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember. 

For those who are new to Poets United:  

1. Post your new BOMB poem on your site, and then link it here.
2. If you use a picture include its link.  
3. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
4. Leave a comment here.
5. Visit and comment on our poems.

(Next week's Midweek Motif is human rights.)

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