{"id":101524,"date":"2017-11-13T12:01:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T12:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=101524"},"modified":"2017-11-08T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T10:47:13","slug":"the-girl-in-the-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/11\/the-girl-in-the-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"The Girl in the Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

for Phan Thi Kim Phuc<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have seen this picture multiple times over the years, but it was just this past fall that I found out that the little girl, Kim, was nine years old when she was scarred for life. My granddaughter was nine this past fall. I wrote this poem below out of deep remorse and with a glimmer of hope \u2014 perhaps, just perhaps, there can be some forgiveness bestowed upon us if we accept our responsibility for the suffering we have caused, and if we live our lives struggling to put an end to war.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*********************<\/em><\/p>\n

“Whatever you run from becomes your shadow.”– traditional<\/p>\n

If you’re a namvet, a survivor of sorts,
\nshe’ll come for you across the decades
\ncasting a shadow in the dying light of your dreams,
\nnaked and nine, terror in her eyes<\/p>\n

Of course you will have to ignore her —
\nif you wish to survive over the years —
\nbut then your daughters will turn nine
\nand then your granddaughters nine<\/p>\n

As the shadows lengthen.<\/p>\n

So, you will have no choice on that one night
\nscreaming down the Ridge Road, lights off,
\nunder a full moon, she standing in the middle of the road,
\nstill naked and nine, terror in her eyes<\/p>\n

Now you must stop to pick her up, to carry her back
\nhome to where she came from, to that gentle
\nvillage where the forgiving and the forgiven
\ngather at high noon. There are no shadows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Phan Thi Kim Phuc presently<\/p><\/div>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

Doug Rawlings is one of the founders of <\/em>Veterans for Peace.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have seen this picture multiple times over the years, but it was just this past fall that I found out that the little girl, Kim, was nine years old when she was scarred for life. My granddaughter was nine this past fall. I wrote this poem below out of deep remorse and with a glimmer of hope \u2014 perhaps, just perhaps, there can be some forgiveness bestowed upon us if we accept our responsibility for the suffering we have caused, and if we live our lives struggling to put an end to war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}