[lit-ideas] Re: Memorial Day Poem

driving or maybe sitting at a light last week
i thought i suddenly knew
as women once knew that their fishermen were gone
exactly how it felt not to play at war but to be there
in some first world war field walking forward
with a scared guy to the right and a scared guy to the left
and a scattering of mad folk opposite
aiming to take our lives
it was the artillery we wanted to kill
those bastards chalking on the sharp shape of shells before they reached the breech 
a present for the kaiser
or gruss gott tommy
i could smell the may scent of plants
not sweet but vegetal wet
as we pressed them
damning all commanders
and their shouts of fire

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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