This poem needs some front loading. The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write an index poem. Yes, a poem from the index of a book. My piece uses almost every letter of the alphabet (no Q or X) in order. I used the index from a book called “Shooting War – Photography and the American Experience of Combat,” by Susan D. Moeller. Before you get to the end of the piece let me tell you who the Z is, as I looked him up in the book.

“The effect of Agent Orange . . . was dramatic; trees were stripped of leaves,” recalled Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., commander of the American in-country naval forces, responsible for the spraying of Agent Orange around navy-patrolled waterways, “thick jungle growth was reduced to twigs, the ground was barren of grass.”   (p. 343 Moeller)

Agent Orange, see Defoliants

American soldiers:
fear and,
personal equipment of,
views of enemy among,

Atrocities :
by Americans,
by the enemy,
faked stories of,

Battle fatigue, see Casualties, psychiatric

Casualties:
among civilians,
guidelines on images of,
psychiatric,

C-rations
Dead Americans, images of,

Dead enemy, images of:
with American soldiers,
as piled bodies,
in posed photographs,

Death:
images of moment of,

Defoliants

Ethics, see Morality of war
Film
Glory of war

Horrors of war:
depictions of,

Information, Journalists, Kodak camera

Life and death:
juxtaposition of images of,

Morality of war:
guerrilla tactics and,
killing of civilians and,
poison gas and,
shooting of prisoners and,
unconventional weapons and,

Napalm & Objectivity

Photographers:
addiction to war as motivation for,
compassion and,
sense of responsibility in,

Rifles
Sounds & smells of battles
Trench warfare
“Urgent Fury”
Volunteer Weaponry

Yellow journalism:
images of the dead and,

Zumwalt, Elmo, Jr.

Agent Orange, see defoliants

Brenda Warren 2016

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C.  4/16  –  bwarren