To you whom I adore
This letter to our door
Upon the street
Where first we met
My name now
Forever sullied.
When I fall
At dawns first call
Free then of guns and shells
Men screaming.
For a century or more
Me and those alike
Forever branded
By mad men with gleaming eye
Drinking claret over maps
Speaking still of the past.
Birdsong and the breeze with dawn
In unison us both to fall
Me to the sodden earth
The wounded tied to a chair
Gunshots echoed high above
Judged by these madmen evermore.
My children I will not see grow
Be they tainted by shame and more
From those who read or did not face
The sickening storm
Of hell on earth
Machine guns cutting men in half
Shattered heads
Horror touching mirth.
I a volunteer first
In a patriotic thirst
Mentioned with honour
Dispatches sang my praise
As now I face
My pre dug grave.
Three years of death
These killing fields
Sapped my nerves
My brain to scream
Unable to pull a trigger see
My fisted and shaking hands
My frozen limbs
My shattered thoughts
Lay violent by blood soaked hand
Upon this foreign land.
-
Author:
nephilim56 (
Offline) - Published: July 11th, 2024 11:05
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 12
Offline)
Comments2
Such a moving poem. You have captured the carnage so well. Shot for cowardice, when they were suffering from the awful effects of shell shock. Judged by madmen. Thank you for remembering them.
thank you for those kind words, a subject that brings shame
It does indeed and the stories I have read, make me cry buckets. To die with honour is one thing, to be executed for cowardice is beyond comprehension. Especially as shell shock wasn’t understood back then.
Those men werent allowed mental illness despite the absolute madness and horror they endured, so many young lives lost
I can remember a time, many years ago when I dwelt on this topic a lot. Couldn't leave it alone. Sometimes that feeling returns as for example when confronted by your poem.
I thought I was reading about a horrendous history, And that humanity, politics and so on was now better than that… how misguided.
too true, thank you ,
To be able to comment and rate this poem, you must be registered. Register here or if you are already registered, login here.