Rainbow Death

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson

This poem is by Hubert Wilson. Huber Wilson was a soldier who was involved in the Vietnamese war. Hubert Wilson served in the USAF security service He was sent to a Agent Orange hotspot during the Vietnamese war. As agent orange was used a lot in those areas, the environment was contaminated and it affected him. His health problems progressively got worse. At first it was only headaches and limb pains, then his central nervous system deteriorated and he started to experience spasms, severe headaches and worse limb pains. However, nobody could detect any specific medical conditions. Thus, he was not able to receive any medical help or assistance from any doctor.

The rainbow death which Hubert Wilson mentions in his poem refers to the Agent orange. Agent orange was a chemical substance used during the Vietnamese war against Vietnam. Agent orange was a herbicide and defoliant- contaminated with TCDD or Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin). Approximately 4.8million Vietnamese were affected by Agent Orange and which resulted in about 400,000 deaths among the Vietnamese people and many more babies deformed at birth.

This poem “Rainbow Death” is basically to bring up the issue on the consequences of war. He tries to show that even after war has ended, the effects of these wars would still stay. Hubert Wilson also tries to show us the horror of modern warfare. As technology continues to improve, our weapons of war becomes more powerful and more destructive.
Resources:
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange