For this Remembrance Day, some poems in memory of the fallen:
Through the Eyes of a Soldier
One breath, one individual breath,
exhaled slowly across the arena of battle.
A small impulsive act, to muster your valour,
before you step into war, into the killing field.
Where bodies drop upon the trampled ground,
where you will choke on grime and acrid smoke,
as the earth grows sodden, drenched with blood,
and the air will hum, unreal, with lingering death.
Pain is the final sensation your body will know,
before you succumb and fall, with one last breath.
In Memoriam
Battlefields of scarlet
where the flowers grow
and the wind blows past
the fallen soldiers.
Where the flowers grow
with memories of soldiers;
ghosts not forgotten.
And the wind blows past
rows of weathered stone,
that mark their graves.
The Fallen Soldiers;
lives given, sacrificed
in war, in honour.
Soldier Boy
Play me a tune for Death;
he has passed this way.
A sad lament, for those
who shed their final blood
on this forlorn battlefield.
Play a song of sorrow
for your fallen friends.
Each and every soul
who shall never grace
again, this vibrant earth.
The first decastich is intense with images and pain.
ReplyDeleteSoldier Boy's last three lines drive straight into my heart.
Thank you. If I remember correctly, Soldier Boy was written for one of your prompts.
ReplyDeleteSoldier Boy brings to my mind the piper's tune MacCrimmon's Lament, from Scotland.
ReplyDeletePossibly some of my heritage crept into that one.
ReplyDelete