| When Paradise Burned |  |
| With Sunday shipboard church-pennants raised,
Padres uttered words of praise,
Sailors in their dress whites sang
That day in Paradise.
Some were tired and sleepin' in,
Others recovering from a night of sin,
The Opana radar found something and then
Paradise turned into Hell.
It took a few minutes to just realize,
The planes buzzing 'round, like bees in the skies,
Bombing Oahu in total surprise
Were Japanese born and bred.
Torpedo planes were dropping their loads,
Aiming for Navy ships, tied up in rows,
Gray-painted steel, now shot full of holes
Zero Seven Fifty-five was the time.
Bombs fell at Wheeler and Hickam Field too,
Over Bellows, Kaneohe and Ford Island they flew,
Bloody oil in Pearl Harbor hid waters of blue
Black smoke boiled into the sky.
Zeke's, Val's and Kate's sliced through the air,
Red meatballs on canvas were everywhere,
The carriers they wanted were not even there
Utah rolled over and died.
Cassin and Downes were destroyed in dry-dock,
Three fish hit Oklahoma, to the bottom she dropped,
Arizona exploded and upwards flames shot
The pineapple fleet was destroyed.
Nevada was making a run for the sea,
At Hospital Point she struggled to beach,
The Big Island covered with death and debris,
By 9:45 it was done.
Two thousand plus lives were taken away,
FDR called it an infamous day,
But not four years later, in Tokyo Bay,
The victim the victor became.
And so, on the seventh day of December,
With flags at half-mast, as TAPS is played tender,
Honor is paid, to those we remember,
The boys who will never go home. | By Ken B. Harper
Copyright 2006
Listed October 19, 2006 |
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