It is a name
every American
should know.
Five hundred four
Vietnamese villagers
slaughtered
by American troops
that day in My Lai
fifty years ago.
Lt. Calley was given
house arrest,
then pardoned by Nixon.
No one went to prison
for the massacre
of children, women, old men.
That’s what happens
in war, they say.
That’s what they say.
David Krieger
March 2018