Honored Dead

Honored Dead

 

 Flies and maggot children feast

Upon theirs and ours

 Too few of us remain to bury all

The officers fear the dead will kill us

Their dead and ours

Will kill us all

The dead and their allies

The flies

Better we had not come

Or could dig faster

Reviews

[Beccy]

Sad to say, I believe our species will never be able to dig fast enough to escape the aberrant warlike gene, that either by accident, or design, was programmed into the original blueprint.

In honoring the dead, we by default celebrate the tragedy of war.

Beccy.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading and for your comments.

[Beccy]

Like you said' a regretful poem.

[CD Campbell]

Mass graves and lime. You have to cover the bodies in lime to keep the stench and disease from spreading. It's one of the terrible things about mass murder and conflict, you have to dispose of those unfortunate that stand in the way of "progress". But I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder and who is dispensing that progress.

It's sad that when an army marches on to the next objective, quick burials had to happen. Got no opinion on conflict as I am a human being and probably guilty of contributing in some factor, but I do know that I was entranced from the first gritty line. The poem followed a dark and literary road all the way to the end at "dig faster".

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading. I like this poem and would do so even if a stranger had written it, or so I tell myself. No reason for it. It’s ghastly. Maybe I have a dark mind. In my defense I do think it is a regretful poem.

[CD Campbell]

Well, regretful but good. No one said everything in this world was made up of rainbows.

[Papaya]

This brings to mind the horror of war and for some reason makes me think of the Nazi holocaust and other such genocide horrors that have occurred. Powerful write.

[Delmar Cooper]

I appreciate your comment. Thanks.

[h d e rushin]

"But she would weep
to see today, how on his
skin the swart flies move
the dust upon the paper eye
and the burst stomach like a cave

for here the lover and killer are mingled
who had one body and one heart
and death who had the soldier singled
has done the lover mortal hurt"

I revisited these lines from Keith Douglas's poem "Vergissmeinnicht" as he suggest,
like you have, that the ignominy of war clumps the innocent, the dead, the bellicose and the
winged insect used as purification all together. Douglas was killed in Normandy in 1943.
War still remains too confusing to rationalize. Keep writing my friend. But who should we
say were writing for Dana? For the coming man.

dana

[Rene Salinas]

I have found myself relating to aspects of this subject lately. From the good business proposition that War is to the causaility behind the proliferation of hate as an effective tool to engender lack of tolerance. Again who are to blame? We of course the ones that blindly follow, that pay no attention to the lies that we are fed. Yet on the other side you have the people that commit the ultimate sacrifice in putting them life on the line for the pursue of what they belive to be a good cause. So many contradictions then are thrown into the "mix" that he senslesness of it all becomes irrelevant as the people who suffer and come and go through this motion of events increases everyday.


Very current topic expressed here.

Thankyou

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading.

[Dean]

another anti-war (which I totally believe continue its need to be said)--dramatically and effectively shared. A plus for your addition!

[Charles V. Hayden]

This poem really captures the tragedy of war and it's innocent victims. Very well written!

Charles

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading Charles

[jacob erin-cilberto]

love the last two lines..."or could dig faster"

we are haunted by the casualties of wars that are so useless, so pointless.

killing each other over oil, money, just plain hatred...but those we have sacrifice, they will get us somehow...
i think i see the flies coming.

really poignant write.

[Lyn Anderson]

This is an amazing write. It is powerful, emotional, and "in your face" poetry at its finest.
BTW, I don't think you qualify as NEW anymore -- change your tag?

[Delmar Cooper]

I thought the tag was assigned. Who knew?

[Lyn Anderson]

It is assigned, but you can change it.

[W.k.kortas]

A bit of the old Crane here, though not as straight-ahead-and-hit-'em-with-a-two-by-four as he tended to be. The opening line lets the reader know where you stand on the honor of the whole business of war, but it's understated enough that we don't feel bullied by it. It's very fine stuff.

[Delmar Cooper]

It is a comfort that at least one reader understands that while an opinion is expressed it is not the only opinion that is possible. Thanks