Short Verdun Poems

SUMMER IN THE SUN

There was a young man from Verdun
Who lazed in the hot summer sun.
He reclined, all revealing,
Till his skin started peeling,
Then he said, “I reckon I’m done”

11th June 2020
Summer Laziness Contest
Sponsor - Mohan Chutani...

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Eleventh hour—
	young men perished,
	their hopes and dreams all lost:
	Ypres, The Marne, Verdun

of the
Eleventh day—
	silent, fell guns,
	and stillness took the front:
	Argonne, Belleau Wood, Amiens

of the
Eleventh month—
	the war men claimed
	would end all others:
	sadly, it did not...

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in a rut
no, a trench.
pulled under like Ypres or Verdun
walls held up by bodies of dearly departed.
we gather here today because we have to.
so chew the dirt from fingernails, 
swim this mud sea.
six feet.
draped flags,
bedsheets, tablecloth rags
set the places.
mines flower on this grave....

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No Supper

Round as a planet, dark as the galaxy
the interior looked like the last battle in Verdun
the early spring of 1914.
It had been a healthy preparation of carrots, beans
turnips, potatoes and meat.
Scorched earth tactic nothing was salvageable.
There had been warnings but human insouciance
ignored the smell emitting filling rooms 
with the bitterness of a failed supper.
The last question is, can the frying pan be saved?...

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