Kent State Poem by Ray Hansell

You sprayed us with your mace
You hit us with your clubs
You knocked us to the ground
You treated us like thugs

You brought in the National Guard
Soldiers not much older than I
You armed them with weapons
As helicopters circled in the sky

You came onto our campus
Then you shot us down
When the smoke had cleared
Four students lay dead on the ground

Most people were so terrified
They were afraid to move
They didn’t know if the guards
Were still in the shooting groove

Fear and panic filled the air
Students on the run
None of them knowing
If they could be the next one

When it finally calmed down
The carnage was clear to see
Four students dead others wounded
I thought in America we were free

But on that day in May (1970)
Under a burning sun
So many of us wondered
If freedom was lost or won

The demonstration was because
We didn’t like the Vietnam War
Too many soldiers dying
We were questioning what for

We just wanted the war to end
That’s all we were looking for
But they came onto our campus
They started their own war

It wasn’t many years after this
There was a so called peace
The fighting came to an end
As Americans had to retreat

But who can claim victory
When so many lives were lost
I if the price both sides paid
Was really worth the cost


11-20-05/RJH