Calvary and infantry mixed with tanks and machine guns for
the “justice of our cause:” Romantic notions of war,
Temporary trenches deepen as the thud
of incessant music as artillery caissons landed and tore
through the men hunkered down in others’ blood.
A lattice-work worming through fields, reinforced with planks of two-by-four,
ordinance and flowers grow out of moss and mud.
Makeshift pyramids of bones, and skulls grow before
trails of barbed wire meant to impede and lessen esprit d’corps.
Housing for ammo boxes and corpses, fed by flesh, irrigated by blood.
Ghosts of gas-blinded and limbless men fall for
Ghosts of gas-blinded and limbless men fall for
the war to end all wars: prelude to more and bigger wars.
© Bill Cushing
100 years on we shall remember them: Britain commemorates its WWI dead
Bill Cushing is from New York. he has lived in numerous states and Puerto Rico, moving to Los Angeles after earning his MFA in writing from Goddard College. Besides writing, he teaches college English. Notes and Letters with Bill Cushing & Charles Corbisiero.
