Thursday, February 4, 2010

An Inglorious War 1914-1918

Eyes blank, bodies shatter- soar in the current of hot air
then flumph into the dirt, broken, weightless flotsam
shared life and death in the unsung coffin of the trench
Unmitigated horror all around in hues of red and black
In the distance,the rat tat tat boom reveals reluctant day
No will to dawn on carnage bloody,brutal, hopeless
hoping none have lived to see theiring horses try to rise -
Disembowelled,entrails oozing sceaming for help but there
Are no words, no living hands to comfort their distress


Evil lives in this place hovers overhead
While Death waits with gentleling arms
For Death has no glorious lustre here
Nor will age weary glorious youth in sacrifice!
No honour in the children’s lives, so cheaply bought.
They lie forever now, entombed in time, beloved sons
beloved men of heart and soul, the flowers of the field,
extinguished forever in war's futililty and gloom of loss.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This really evokes for me the futility and tragedy of war, especially WW1, in a way no other poem I've read on the subject has done. It's because of its strong images of violence towards the innocent, here the horses 'Disembowelled, entrails oozing', and its passionate disgust - 'No honour in the children's lives, so cheaply bought.'
Powerful stuff.