English E learning

For e-learning,mrs lily chai asked us to analyze a poem entitled:
Children in the Darkness
written by Henry M Bechtold
There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light
Henry M Bechtold was in Vietnam in 1967 - 1968.He was sitting in my hotel room in Saigon just before Christmas 2009 and was trying to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and how badly men treat them. He was angry but unable to write anything that did not sound trite or weak. He saw the news in the at TV and in the background was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. He drew inspiration from that photo and the poem then came out naturally.