That Was the MUSE That Was

War to End

Expectant delight of carnage raised their blood.

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

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.

That Was the MUSE That Was

Who's being oppressed?

"Women and children first!"
The infamous quote we all take
From the tragedy that was the Titanic.

This was around the time
Suffragettes resorted to appalling acts
To receive the vote.
Yet the motto was always,
Women and children first.

The Great War started soon after
The men were military fodder;
Granted nurses were sacrificed
Including Edith Cavell
And the canary girls had poisonous dust
On their fingers
From making bombs which blew up
Men on the battlefield.

But "Daddy, what did you do in the War?"
Ensured that men signed up
Including underage ones
(The largest percentage of whom were shot at dawn)
Otherwise they risked a white feather
From an outraged female-
Because men had to protect them and their children,
And fight for King and Country
In the War.

© Amanda Derry

TITANIC DISASTER NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE

Amanda Derry joined a Creative Writing class, following a breakdown, which played a significant role in her recovery. She now embeds literacy skills into classes that she teaches. Amanda also runs the Facebook Group, I Love Writing.

Dr Elsie Inglis

When eventually her grave was found

Somewhere in Edinburgh,

The headstone was covered

In green algae. This patriot

Who on volunteering

For medical service

Was told to go home

And sit still.

Now her medals are displayed

Behind spotless glass,

Mounted and framed

With polished wood;

For Elsie paid no heed

To the advice given,

But went to war instead

Saving countless lives,

Treating wounded and dying,

Comforting the bereaved,

Setting up field hospitals

And raising the necessary funds;

Captured by the Germans,

Detained only a short while

Until allowed home in 1917;

They had 'had enough'.

Crippled by fatal illness

She was carried from ship to hotel

In Newcastle, dying only

A short while later;

Dr Elsie Inglis a supporter

Of female suffrage,

Who refused to sit still

Until she'd done her duty.

© David Subacchi

The female war medic who refused to 'go home and sit still'

David Subacchi lives in Wales (UK) where he was born of Italian roots. He studied at the University of Liverpool and has 4 published collections of his English Language poetry: First Cut (2012), Hiding in Shadows (2014), Not Really a Stranger (2016) and A Terrible Beauty (2016) as well as a collection in Welsh: Eglwys Yng Nghremona (2016).