Moses hungered mightily for Canaan,
That fabled milk and honey promised land.
He ‘scaped by wading hip deep through the water
To keep from leaving footprints in the sand.
This engine sent to free you
From bondage that be keeping you down.
This engine meant to lead you
To stations on the sweet underground.
Moses tended Pharaoh’s great plantation,
And suffered by the lash like all his kind.
The overseers victimized his manhood,
And paid their Christian creed no never mind.
This engine gonna move you,
But sure don’t run on any graded road.
This engine ain’t no choo-choo,
Though good and plenty soon to be bestowed.
Moses set his vision on Mount Zion,
And wandered through the desert seeking clues.
With cloud and fire offering their guidon,
He soon became the father of the blues.
Moses hungered mightily for Canaan.
Categories:
guidon, history, slavery,
Form: Lyric
Gustavo’s Rite
He walked onto the harbor beach at sunset,
planting a small net on a pole like a guidon,
and setting soiled cloth bags around it.
Alone on the beach he began his dance.
Mismatched clothes flapping, he swayed,
then paced, then crouched to pat the sand
into a crescent, then stepped back and back,
dug sand by hand, finding black things
and tossing them into a jumbled pile .
He stepped easily, as if riding waves,
moving in erose shapes only he knew.
Then he gathered net and bags and left,
not glancing back at the cairn
of burnt wood and asphalt fragments.
All this I watched from a restaurant deck,
and had to ask the waiter about him.
“Gustavo,” he said, shrugging, “a local character.”
I nodded but kept silent, recalling that morning
walking another beach, trying to feel profound.
Categories:
guidon, allusion, beach, emotions, imagination,
Form: Free verse
T’is said the battle ended
as the tattered guidon fell
yet those who bear the scars
have a different tale to tell.
He stood among the bloodied
no one special - just a man
tears mingled with the blood he shed
it had never been his plan.
Stumbling he picked her up
slowly carried her away
cleansed her of the blood and tears
erased the days dismay
knowing that the battle speaks
only to those who were
thrust into its ugliness
twisted by its gore
thus do all battles ever rage
long after guidons fall
live forever in the thoughts
of those who met the call.
Their guidon touched the reddened earth
and bid them all farewell
save one who held her sacred
and marched her out of hell.
John G. Lawless
©6/12/2018
Categories:
guidon, freedom, military, soldier, war,
Form: Verse
Sweet Summer Road – visual 3
Sweet summer, as emerald feelings rose,
trees, gnarled by duty, waving guidon flags
arched entry to the paths the lovers chose.
Sweet summer, as emerald feelings rose,
Love’s simple chore – make poetry from prose,
hold tight the dream on rolling hills and crags
Sweet summer, as emerald feelings rose,
trees, gnarled by duty, waving guidon flags.
5/28/2015
submitted to – One Lovely Summer Triolet – Poetry Contest
sponsor – Andrea Dietrich
Categories:
guidon, love, metaphor, nature, summer,
Form: Triolet