The night wind slipped through the restless trees
Bearing the cannon’s blast, the cries and the screams
of the day’s long battle upon the now hallowed ground,
and the river crimsoned where the dying would be found..
When the murderous sun had the decency to fall
On their ragged wool blankets lay the soldiers, all.
Some slept to escape, some slept to forget,
But the river still crimsoned where the dying were yet.
First light came cruelly to display all the horror
Of the dead….the carnage…the calling card of war.
And as the blood red sun seeped over the hills
The river crimsoned and bled and gave everyone chills.
This day…somehow worse…if that could be said
for the bloody business at hand was all up ahead.
The searching commenced..the calling of names began
all along the river crimsoned…. where heroic blood ran.