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
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