In 2009, on my last trip to Vietnam, I was sitting in my hotel trying to write a poem about the girls in the park and how badly men treat them. Using them and then tossing them aside like an empty candy wrapper. I could not put two lines together that were meaningful however I really wanted to write the poem. I looked at the TV and there was a News Reader on. The sound was down but behind him was a photo of a little African boy wearing an Army helmet and carrying an automatic rifle. This poem just flowed out and I wrote it down just as fast as it came to me.

If I had written this in High School a few close friends and my family would have read it. Now, because of the internet, it is being read around the world. I Googled ““Children in the darkness” “Henry Bechtold”” and found the poem being assigned to students in Singapore to analyze. A woman in England asked if they could read my poem at a “Remembrance Day” celebration. She later wrote and said that it was well received. I have received e-mails from around the world. It amazes me.