Cold Harbor Cathedrals

(Cold Harbor, Virginia, May 31-June 12, 1864; 1,845 Union dead, 788 Confederate dead) cathedrals rise, tall arching boughs, crisscrossing limbs, lush, leafy rooftops lofted high and rustled by warm tender breeze; green rooftops shimmer, reverent, while casting shade to consecrate this hallowed ground, this battlefield, topography forever scarred by trench and earthworks dug in haste scratched out for fear and valor's sake, grave-deep furrows once harbor to depleted men far from their homes who wept and moaned and fought, survived, sad ditch and trench from which strong trunks loft high the ceiling's verdant vault while saplings bend in pensive prayer, roots buried in brown detritus discarded by last autumn's chill, dark moldered leaves now slowly melting into earth where men once battled, suffered, died… to ash from ash, cathedrals rise November 15, 2022 The Crap Shoot #2 Poetry Contest John Lawless, sponsor