I Fell Today
I FELL TODAY
I fell today
As the lights over Europe dimmed
To a whisper;
The voices of war
Slipped on the artist's palette
Painting as she did
Flowers of blood
Upon the sky
And they remembered.
Swallowed by waxen candle light
The tallowed flicker
As a marker on horizon far
Brings the boys into line
Brings the boys home.
Who knew, mothers of sons
Who stretch the quagmill'd heresy
Of humanity;
The time has come they cried
The time when death fills
Nostrils sickened
By decapitated flowers
Twas where I fell...
Mother, unashamedly, I cried.
For you.
The first bullet of conflict,
Who knew?
Marked with my name....
I fell today as candles extinguished
To be relit around Christmas
When we all troop back
Across the Channel
Now a peaceable sea of glass
And victory is ours but...
...Mother, I fell today.
I arrived this morning,
This isn't how they said it would be;
My light has dimmed.
My heart beats no more.
My body is cold in clamm'd soil
And England is a mem'ry distant.
I wonder, in a hundred years,
Will they still remember that,
I fell today?
tcmoon 2014
Copyright © Ron Matthews | Year Posted 2014
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment