Invisible Men

They are all around you. Forgotten.

Here we slept, the Chosin

frozen upon winter beds;

corpse mattresses, blanketed

by blood-caked snow

Abandoned, we were

unremembered, we are

yet here we live

final few

Standing in line

at the market,

next to you.

 

Reviews

[The Danger]

I guess this poem could be taken in a lot of ways. The most obvious imagery was of a soldier who comes back to society different than he left. I thought, though, that an interesting way to view the term "corpse mattresses" would be that there are people among you in society, like wealthy socialites, who sleep on beds made from the labors of others. Short poem, but many themes possible. Good stuff!

[TheRaven]

Thank you very much for the read, and your in-depth thoughts! That's indeed a possible reading. Brevity is the soul of wit as they say! Though, not always true lol. The direct images of corpse mattresses refers to the fact that soldiers literally were laying down upon dead comrades in arms during the massacre at the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. I appreciate the read and review!

[The Danger]

No problem. I look forward to reading many more of your things. :D

[Érenn]

I think you are talking about the Chosin Reservoir campaign here, and all the men who lost their lives and the other stanza talks about how many have forgotten about the whole massacre and only those soldiers(comrades) who survived and came back as different men are the only ones who remember these fallen members.

Love the brevity and love the vocabulary you have used to invoke quite the vivid and chilling imagery Thank you for sharing

[TheRaven]

Jesus, how did I leave this unanswered for so long! Chosin Reservoir is a tag I used, so, yeah, you're correct; lol. As always, thank you for your feedback, it's always enjoyable.