Best Close Ranks Poems
My one true love with eyes of sparkling blue
Our hearts as one it was our destiny
Heaven sent you for me and me for you
It would not last but end in tragedy.
War intervened I’d have to go away
To the Crimea with the light brigade
My true love I thought of every day
Our lives on hold along with plans we’d made.
The Captain said “suppress your greatest fears
Ride close ranks and do not come asunder”
The noise of hooves were ringing in my ears
Sounds they made were like a raging thunder.
A lance pierced me and off my horse I fell
Then death came down, my life I bid farewell.
Written on 7th February 2019.
1861
Dust rises from the rutted road. Cannon laden caissons rumble slowly forward. A red sun competing with the campfires glow. Weary troops break camp, joining the ranks of
colleagues on the move. An enemy, unseen, lays before them, waiting to exact a deadly blow.
Bellowed orders cut through the hushed encampment, bugles sound, urgency pervades. Battle lines are drawn, men marching, resolve and fear etched upon their hearts.
Artillery from behind sing the opening anthem. Flashes on the horizon acknowledging their song. In quickstep they press toward the waiting army, searching til they face the long gray line.
A fusillade rips through the forward soldiers, leaving death and carnage in its wake. A
row of men drop in lines of destruction, their cries of pain soon muted by the battles call.
Panicked faces seek cover as their Captains, yell and threaten, urging them on.
Deadly canister screams overhead, delivering their fingers of death, Fragments of life left littering the field. “Close ranks” the Captain cries. “Rally round the colors.” In the
face of death the army presses onward, drummer boys beating cadence on their drums.
Smoke and bodies soon consume the landscape, fragments of lives lost, attesting to the
horrors of the day. On and on the contest rages. Giving, taking, winning, losing, dying.
Until welcome darkness cloaks the field of battle, forcing war to take a short respite
In darkened fields, litter bearers rummage through a broken army. Seeking those whose ravaged bodies won’t surrender, selecting those who might still have a chance.
Hot tears run down the face of hardened soldiers, gripped by a mix of anger, fear and
sorrow. Mourning for the sons and brothers taken. Respecting those that they must leave behind.
Unknown to them this is but a beginning. A scene to be replayed so many times. Our
nation would become a blood soaked homeland. Each side sure that they were on His side.
Time would leave its scars upon our nation. Destroying in an effort to unite. A terrible
price would be exacted. With the lives of many men it would be paid
The War Between The States officially ended April 9, 1865. The conflict cost 624000 lives.
COPLA TRES (THREE): This Bad Guy World
Bad guys signal to each other
In cryptic lingo and hand signs
Close ranks bind ties
Egg-white eyes of the murderer
Encroach the pupil with designs
Embryo dies
No worse enemy than the friend
Who feigns being a bosom pal:
Snake in the shoe
They know their role is to offend
Their lives but ephemeral
Do they yet rue
(Continued from COPLA DOS)
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2013
Panic stations
Uneasy the herds where packs rode
Panic stations
Packs close ranks when lone wolf notions
Disrupt the pecking order mode
It's the lone voice that bears the load
Panic stations
(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 2012
Your voyage began in the summer of 69.
The adventures of life lay ahead.
Though you knew it would not all be plain sailing,
Your four years of prep put you in good stead.
At times, when your sea got quite choppy,
You'd batten down the hatches, as it were.
For both of you knew that after rocky waves
A storm was likely to occur...
After some time, the storm would abate.
In the calm you could recover.
And even though the storm was bad,
You'd grown closer, relied on each other.
As time has gone by it may feel
Like the unsettlement seems to lengthen,
But because you close ranks to wether these storms
Your trust, love and bond does strengthen.
Your ship is one of stability!
Wherever your journey may take you,
I wish you both a " Happy Anniversary! "
And long may your travels continue!
MOTHER’S DAY
Mother in the family, is a joy and light forever
Their sacrifices from infancy to adulthood,
Are all extensions of their loves
Fathers and children must jointly
Close ranks and with respect loudly say:
Happy Mother’s Day!
It is a beautiful day
When, we, all men,
The ordinary or the greatest, the gritty, the softy, the wily and the witty
Must bow to her and kiss the greatest woman
And the most loving human being on earth,
Our mother, our ONE AND ONLY!
Happy Happy Mother’s Day!
USINS & THEMINS
Usins had a funeral, for a boy who’d seen enough
He hung himself on Wednesday, up in Ballyduff
Themins had a funeral, for a girl who died too soon
She’d been bullied all her life, on the streets of Lenadoon
Usins vote the same way, we’ve done it through the years
We close ranks for protection, when election fever nears
Themins vote the same way, they’re stuck in history
They do it to annoy us; it’s plain for all to see
Themins can’t be trusted and they never ever could
They’re eyes are close together and they started this whole feud
Though Usins won’t be sainted for the things done in the past
It kinda makes you wonder, how long this hate will last
Usins kinda look the same, as themins down the street
We also breathe the same air, though we kick with different feet
Usins are like Themins in a lot of different ways
Perhaps we’re not as far apart as everybody says
At last a rationale has struck! And the poisions out of style
Port Hedland council has recognised that deaths have
Grown.. Too wild; and how.' I'll give it here to you.! From one a week
On average, now at seven too sad yet true.' its time and
Past, it could never last, the con-vid tale; has fallen through. fast!
Now Hedlanders what will you do.? Now at last some are speaking true.! Close ranks' its your time; now to 'rise and shine'
That all Australia, may..( Stand to )
When a candidate loses,
That person must reach
All who gave their support
With a televised speech.
So I watched VP Harris,
The crowd fighting tears,
Though it didn’t do much
To assuage all my fears.
Yet she said what she had to
And offered her thanks,
Reassuring the voters
We need to close ranks.
If the fight isn’t over,
As Kamala said,
There’s a lot to be done
And four long years ahead.