Short Bugler Poems

Bugler

Beyond the mists of Tattered Ridge,
Plays a Bugler who bugles alone.
He’d prefer to bugle in his living room,
But the missus won’t let him,
when she’s at home....

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in violet dawn
he screeches a world awake
barnyard bugler struts

the sun is coming
and he's the first one to know
blooms and butterflies

red rooster so bold
like desert cactus flowers
and amber at noon...

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Severed madness….
  the wounds bleed again

All stitches have broken
  stains marking the end

Unsutured indemnity
  ensuring your pain

All flesh now in enmity
 —last bugler in flames 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)...

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The rain stopped
  the sun was gone
 
Mercy was in
  short supply
 
Smoke hung over
  the battlefield
 
A bugler in the mud
  with his cry
 
Bodies were being
  carted off
 
New songs were written
  to the dead
 
Just another day in
  World War 1
 
That started and ended
   in dread

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2014)...

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From the sound of the bugle
in the rush of the wind
The bodies are counted
as grieving begins

In the morrow replaying
as blood spills again
The enemy forward
whose countenance grim

The courage of many
all acting as one
Their wills long suborted
with fear on the run

Till the bugle goes silent
the bugler face down
Last day ill remembered
—a wounded dog howls  

(The New Room: June, 2023)...

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An achromatic statue of a Union bugler
soldier stands high above
a tiny municipal park
where class Aves defecate daily
on his stone-cold cap and shoulders.
Monday and many more Memorial Days
We will dignify this warrior
And others like him lost in battle.
Honoring them with flowers,
Prayers and parades,
eulogistic speeches
praising them for giving us
another day of freedom
in America, home of the brave....

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TAPS

Alone upon a windswept hill, a single bugler stands
A song of solace in his heart, his horn held in his hands
Day is done, gone the sun, the mournful notes he blows
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky, the lyric goes

You cannot hear it and forget, those for whom it's meant
You cannot help but shed a tear for those to whom it's sent
The haunting sound that says goodnight, also says goodbye
Calling soldiers to their rest, they're safe now, God is nigh...

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