Pam Maxwell Alps

War

It’s too late now to say you’re sorry,

I can’t forgive you

even as I die.

I’m watching flowers burning,

dying slowly.

I even think that I can hear them cry.

I hear the soulful wailing of a

baby——

he knows it’s all over—

Dead daisies,

Dead clover,

Burning forests,

A burning pullover,

On the man up the road.

Burning forests, blackened sky,

but even in this,

I don’t want to die.

Saying goodbye to nature

as she grinds to a halt,

Destroyed by the demons

Of wartime thought….

But that is the wrong word,

they never did think….

Oh god! What a stink!

And where are you now sir?

Almighty, m’Lord?

Planting an apple tree

In a new world?