A screenshot for “Duck and Cover” (1952), early cold war era propaganda film for children (U.S. Public Domain)
If you weren’t there
you can hardly imagine the beauty,
the exquisite peace of those hot summers
Sun as bright as a child’s heart
Trees thickly leaved and old as God
Heat rising off the nubby concrete
in mighty rainbow waves and life
moving in time to the music of paradise
Or, so it seemed to preschoolers at play
At the dead of noon
a stillness
Even the child sensed it
that transcendent moment,
nature in quiet meditation
no breeze
no sighs
no butterflies winging
children stopped playing
grown-ups stopped working
the Hudson Bay stilled its roiling
when suddenly
the beloved city choked on the swell of an air-raid siren ….
…. testing
just testing
just blowing a chill wind into
languid days of childhood dreaming
toddlers crying for toddler reasons
well-trained grade-school children
diving under oak desks for the required
The cold war: there was so much revealed by the singularity of that time. What crazy quirks do you remember or have you heard about from those you know who lived through it?
If you are comfortable, leave your work or a link to it in the comments section below. All shared pieces will be published on this site next Tuesday.
I see this brought up lots of responses this time giving different eyes seeing for each one. Here is my response you can read here at https://reneejustturtleflight.com/2017/07/17/a-siren-wailing-for-no-reason. Your poem I really liked Jamie and I thought to myself, it could not be said better! But there is no better or worse but all very interesting takes. Be well.
MORE THAN A COLD WAR
It was easy to see a war
In someone else’s back yard,
But the cold war brought ideas
Of destruction to my street
And to places where my feet
Touched the ground.
I thought often about homes
Made of concrete buried deep,
So how could I sleep?
My thoughts were of the aftermath
Of a crazy war with nuclear blasts
Bringing a nuclear winter.
Safe in a shelter but outside nothing alive.
The fifties were a time when our land
Was divided by race
Separate but equal
As long as the white equal was more.
I remember small things,
A prize I won at age twelve
For having an answer to
Name the governor who blocked the door
Against black people who wanted more.
They wanted equality.
I saw street signs that said no blacks
After 6 p.m. in several towns.
The cold war was not somewhere else
But also a civil war within our own country.
I saw the war never ending
As long as we continued bending
Defining people by culture, language, or color
Or whatever differences are around.
We built shelters far underground,
And never to be found.
But someday we will want to breathe
The same air, feel the sun, hear music
And then the walls might come down,
Ending the cold war, ending the barriers,
Becoming the planet of the wise
Without a disguise.
Working and living together.
No cold wars, no hot wars, not even rumors of wars.
That’s my dream.
July 13, 2017
The Cold War was a time of Self-Destruction
The cold war was not your usual war. World War II was over and soldiers were home straightening out their finances, their lives, and learning to laugh again. It was a time of flexing military muscle, USA vs. USSR. It was a time of threatened security and talks about spies. It was an era of hidden ICBM missiles, tucked away in secret places, a time of country pride. The fifties was stifling, no laughter in the hallways, no mini skirts, no flowers in the fields. After several years of exuberant laughter, the world prepared for war, prepared to hide everything under its wings, and everything good seemed suspect. The Soviet Union displayed its might in parades. The USA pointed fingers at suspected communist sympathizers and tapped phone lines. But the worst effects of the cold war were the squashed dreams and ugly suspicions, the kind of things that tore families apart and ruined friendships.
The fifties were nightmares waiting to happen. I remember a camping trip into the wilds. A friend and I drove hours looking for a deserted campground. We drove until dark, put out cots and listened to crickets and other insects singing. Just after three a.m. the ground began shaking and we leaped off our cots and prepared to fight.
We stood there for a few minutes waiting for a German tank to come crashing through the brush. It never came. We were duped by our own fears and nightmares. The Cold War created a false reality. My friend had seen tanks in action and they became part of his dreams. I dreamed of the future where families would have to fight their way out of nightmares and fears. The Cold War was filled with tension and waiting, a time that people talked about eating their own young to save them from the wars to end all wars.
July 12, 2017
by 
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 
I see this brought up lots of responses this time giving different eyes seeing for each one. Here is my response you can read here at https://reneejustturtleflight.com/2017/07/17/a-siren-wailing-for-no-reason. Your poem I really liked Jamie and I thought to myself, it could not be said better! But there is no better or worse but all very interesting takes. Be well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
MORE THAN A COLD WAR
It was easy to see a war
In someone else’s back yard,
But the cold war brought ideas
Of destruction to my street
And to places where my feet
Touched the ground.
I thought often about homes
Made of concrete buried deep,
So how could I sleep?
My thoughts were of the aftermath
Of a crazy war with nuclear blasts
Bringing a nuclear winter.
Safe in a shelter but outside nothing alive.
The fifties were a time when our land
Was divided by race
Separate but equal
As long as the white equal was more.
I remember small things,
A prize I won at age twelve
For having an answer to
Name the governor who blocked the door
Against black people who wanted more.
They wanted equality.
I saw street signs that said no blacks
After 6 p.m. in several towns.
The cold war was not somewhere else
But also a civil war within our own country.
I saw the war never ending
As long as we continued bending
Defining people by culture, language, or color
Or whatever differences are around.
We built shelters far underground,
And never to be found.
But someday we will want to breathe
The same air, feel the sun, hear music
And then the walls might come down,
Ending the cold war, ending the barriers,
Becoming the planet of the wise
Without a disguise.
Working and living together.
No cold wars, no hot wars, not even rumors of wars.
That’s my dream.
July 13, 2017
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jamie – my third response…
. fox hole.
colder in russia, that picture
shows soldiers froze
to death.
after the end
of that war.
second world war
there was that #coldwar.
sbm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Cold War was a time of Self-Destruction
The cold war was not your usual war. World War II was over and soldiers were home straightening out their finances, their lives, and learning to laugh again. It was a time of flexing military muscle, USA vs. USSR. It was a time of threatened security and talks about spies. It was an era of hidden ICBM missiles, tucked away in secret places, a time of country pride. The fifties was stifling, no laughter in the hallways, no mini skirts, no flowers in the fields. After several years of exuberant laughter, the world prepared for war, prepared to hide everything under its wings, and everything good seemed suspect. The Soviet Union displayed its might in parades. The USA pointed fingers at suspected communist sympathizers and tapped phone lines. But the worst effects of the cold war were the squashed dreams and ugly suspicions, the kind of things that tore families apart and ruined friendships.
The fifties were nightmares waiting to happen. I remember a camping trip into the wilds. A friend and I drove hours looking for a deserted campground. We drove until dark, put out cots and listened to crickets and other insects singing. Just after three a.m. the ground began shaking and we leaped off our cots and prepared to fight.
We stood there for a few minutes waiting for a German tank to come crashing through the brush. It never came. We were duped by our own fears and nightmares. The Cold War created a false reality. My friend had seen tanks in action and they became part of his dreams. I dreamed of the future where families would have to fight their way out of nightmares and fears. The Cold War was filled with tension and waiting, a time that people talked about eating their own young to save them from the wars to end all wars.
July 12, 2017
LikeLiked by 1 person
My third response:
Keep Off (A World Where 2)
Balance.
All must be unequal.
Walk one leg shorter
than the other. One eye
bigger, one ear lower.
A work/life imbalance brings harmony.
Male different from female.
Unsteady, ever keenly aware
ground uneven underfoot,
Steps up and steps down.
Heights varied keep you focussed.
A balanced life is unreal.
Accept un and imbalance
as necessary and needed
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My second response:
The Dominoes
will fall into the evil empire.
Able Archer practices
War. How to tell it’s only
make believe? These black
doors with white dots
are an iron curtain
between supermarkets
bloated with items unobtainable
except through a black market
on streets steeped in austerity.
Act as if more material goods
improve life while other folk
say “We appreciated life more
when we were poor.” Keep
dominos from fall. Keep all upright
and correct and buying.
Material goods are freedom
from the tyranny of enforced poverty.
Rarity brings value and hope.
The fall of the wall of dominoes.
This was not imaginary.
Pieces of the wall are bought and sold.
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Hi Jamie, my first response.
That M. A. D.
I recall CND.
Their sign that seemed
To a ten year old
three legs of the Isle Of Man
cut off at the ankles.
Cold war was parents divorcing.
Mutual agreement to keep the balance.
A wall is thought to help not hinder
with barbed wire, gun emplacements
watchtowers and divided lovers.
Berlin is always black and white,
divided into zones and checkpoints,
negotiating passages for spies,
and dark electronica where musicians,
poets and novelists
work out their nightmares.
Divorce is mutually assured destruction.
And Donna Summer sings “I will survive”.
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Jamie.My second response….
..cooler morning..
she said it was a cold war, an iron curtain.
it seemed warm to me that summer, we listened
to the radio.
a lot.
we had patterened curtains, she did not like nets.
drawn if it was raining, drawn against the sun.
i could not imagine them metal.
i rarely draw my curtains here.
2017, i live in the country.
sbm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Jamie. here is the first response….
::cold war::
dampflight.
it will be today, and the plants are growing.
so they found a russian
yesterday
with codes and dvds
and while on holiday
fought and sat in trees.
while all is changing round us,
all is changing.
listen ,someone upstairs,
ready for tea
and appropriate bun,
and never mind the hour,
and the rain.
a thin mist,
damp coating
of the air,
and a snail in the garden.
we must not mind how it is,
we must make the best of things.
politics make not an ounce
of difference here, we are black and white,
and back before.
** (notes and cuttings)
with the new scissors………………
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