Long Cannonade Poems

Once wars were fought with sticks and stones
to flog the flesh and batter bones
and conquer lands, defending thrones -
though gods provoke, not one atones. 

The multitude (by hordes beset
with battle-ax or bayonet)
braved blades, dyed red...

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Oblique! 
(The day the gray line Wavered) 

It was hot again, for the third straight day, but it was the 3rd of July; the time the place was Gettysburg and the year was sixty-three 
The...

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General Cornwallis of Great Britain
faced a problem that he couldn’t resolve,
he’d won at Camden, they’d captured Charlestown,
but still the southern colonies wouldn’t fall.

Instead he faced a string of reverses,
lost at King’s Mountain and then at...

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As I sat the serene waves were evocative of those pleasant days,
The setting sun made the myriad memories come alive,
The waves to and forth: encircling my legs like meanders asking questions in 
this vast sea...

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He didn’t have a native land, 
therefore, he had no reminiscences of any sort,
neither good nor ill, other than reckless killing 
at the battlefield where he was compulsorily taken into 
and deployed to fight unwanted...

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Left And Right

Either side the cannons roar
Took of blood and wanted more
Salvo after salvo into the valley
Point blank range to deter the rally

Water poured over steaming muzzles
Russian gunner at this sight puzzles
Tis madness against this...

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When men of fame do meet discord,
They find a way to prove their point.
Then it is, they think of the art,
And call to play artists of doom.
The artists too, who know their art,
Would play the...

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“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", most frequently translated as "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". A. Dante, 14th century Italian poet

They sway the power over mere mortals
They drop the words that cannot be appealed
Gods...

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—Memorial Day Elegy—

The grave site
where the men and women of patriotic spirit fought bravely 
in the battlefield and fell for glory of the nation, 
abandoned everything that they have, buried 
at an age that is...

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It is the scent of you, that breathes in me.
It is the music when you laugh
that chants across the apse
between our heartwalls,
signaling desire, tossing off forever
thoughts of penitence and shame.
It is the holiday of you
that...

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A rushing wind
	roaring strong
across broad land
	bearing all away

black clouds overhead
	like rolling hillsides are
monochrome colors lost
	a barren landscape seen

jagged lightning flashes down
	as mighty thunder roars
a cannonade of the gods
	sharply strikes the land

sharply slashes hard raindrops down
	as...

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My thoughts they roil like waters dark 
in the abyss of blackest night, 
with memories of mother’s bookmark,
of Longfellow read by lamp light.
She called, in the room around me,
the patter of other small feet.
Her gentle...

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Memorial Day Tribute
© Ben Burton 5-25-2015

They stood up for America
And for their families left behind
Our soldiers sent to unknown lands
Secure that God was on their side

Esprit de corps was palpable
In every battle they engaged
Where many...

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You were sharp|ning grass
With your eyes | sit & fixed
Again | a substitute for mow|n
Machine chug|ging along lug
Nuts, molar friction | u - r - n .
Lawn stretches of up|beat
Beach | was there even wind?
Filet...

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Set me off. 
I dare you. 
I want you to feel my rage. 
Taste my vindictiveness. 
And swallow the bullets I've bled out from. 
You made me like this.. 
Unsure, worthless, uncared for. 
Look at...

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