Drumnotes

 DAYS of the dead men, Danny.
Drum for the dead, drum on your
 remembering heart.

Jaurès, a great love-heart of France,
 a slug of lead in the red valves.
Kitchener of Khartoum, tall, cold, proud,
 a shark’s mouthful.
Franz Josef, the old man of forty haunted
 kingdoms, in a tomb with the Hapsburg
 fathers, moths eating a green uniform
 to tatters, worms taking all and leaving
 only bones and gold buttons, bones and
 iron crosses.
Jack London, Jim Riley, Verhaeren, riders to the republic of dreams.

Days of the dead, Danny.
Drum on your remembering heart.

Form: Free verse Comments

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