no man's land

 

and the crows hobble across the courtyard like eager, dark

undertakers. entrepreneurs of cloak and wing, they have

only just begun appearing as the leaves turn like yellow traitors –

marching in their stiff, cowled lines, comrades of the scraping

cry, ducking their shy, hooked

heads.

 

the weeping angels, the weeping

generals. the statues in the courtyard stand, heralds:

bright-winged and gossiping

behind their marble hands like stepsisters.

the autumn leaves gather and kiss at their feet –

the folded lips of sinners craving forgiveness.

 

the artillery smoke rolls in low, blue and figuring, accounting for,

it pockets the white faces of the dead, like seashells intact, and

we can hear the sounds of the dying horses in the field,

struggling up, sagging, lips pulled back to reveal yellow

octaves of teeth. the sound will follow us through the night,

through our milky, unfinished dreams.

 

and here we count our losses and make fires at the feet of the statues.

given life by the cast shadows, they move like pale, cold-handed nurses

among cots of green-legged soldiers. I inherit two pairs of good

winter boots and a pocketwatch, that opens like a tired eye,

a shrunken, weary face, asked one too many times for something

as irrelevant as time.

 

artillery thumps and stumbles in the distance and the horizon is lit up

to the east, as if dawn is rising early with fire and with vengeance,

causing the stars to retreat in their scattered formations

and companies and solar systems.

Reviews

[AbsentElements]

Choice of words in this poem is perfect. It all forms together in rythm. It's a very interesting way to write about this particular idea, and eveyr word wraps around the title the exact way it should. Nice write

[Charles]

This is really good writing. I haven't seen any more apt description of such scenes since reading Here Bullet (by Brian Turner- the soldier poet). I especially like the descritption of the pocket watch - great stuff. I'll browse around a bit to see if I can find other writings of yours.