Thoughts of a fallen soldier..

A tribute to the fallen brave 🌺

Bugler's trumpet splits the early dawn
troops rally, mount charges,
no dilly-dally, timidity, nor benevolence
within satan's jaws, we must ride

Onwards, onwards, galloping hooves plunder
betwixt bullets and cannonball,
comrades in arms, swords drawn, cold steel
frontline decimated, bloody is war

Second row, third, relentless onslaught
reverberates, bugler's shrill horn,
override sickening thud, steed hitting ground
or ghastly shriek, another brother slain

Foe's penetrating lead, lodged deep in chest
blown from saddle, gargling blood,
I lay in muddy ichor, instant pain, battle shock
feel life's vitality, slowly ebbing away

White light glistens above, becalms my fear
sound of soothing, trickling water,
immersing turgid noise of enemy gunfire
visions of verdant homeland, emerge

The jay and lark, sing a mellifluous tune
as I fish in familiar stream, a youth,
carefree days, trout leap, evading false fly
tell them at home, big fish got away

Blackthorn hedge, where dainty fairies play
surround, freshly mowed fields,
light summer shower, aroma, sweet petrichor
vixen with cubs, leveret takes heel

Welcome canopy of oak, initials carved in bark
teenage sweethearts, Sally my love,
and there's Ma & Pa, welcome wave as they call,
' time to come home son, supper on stove '



( petrichor
a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.)




https://youtu.be/kk8foQOQVk0

Author's Note

Big thanks to my cafe friends here for the inspiration to write again 😻

Reviews

[AYVID N]

The jay and lark, sing a mellifluous tune
as I fish in familiar stream, a youth,
carefree days, trout leap, evading false fly
tell them at home, big fish got away

Revisiting this poem today, so relevant to today's war torn times...Yes the big wish always got away. Your words are so haunting my friend, the closing eyes of the felled soldier resist his entire, beautiful life, the verse, his wonderful parents, who'll in a way also die with him. So useless, so needless the loss.
A richly worded poem on the sadness wars bring. The human toll...the dead are not statistics, they're people, they're you and me. An immortal poem of yours.

[Tom]

So kind of you my friend to return once more and leave another endearing comment!

Yes indeed, sadly this anti-war poem as relevent today as it was yesterday, lasy year and countless before, just when it's all ever gonna stop?

[emmajoygreen]

'
The jay and lark, sing a mellifluous tune
as I fish in familiar stream, a youth,
carefree days, trout leap, evading false fly
tell them at home, big fish got away'

'Onwards, onwards, galloping hooves plunder
betwixt bullets and cannonball,
comrades in arms, swords drawn, cold steel
frontline decimated, bloody is war'

Life as should be in the first stanza, gloriously and beautifully visual.
War as laid in the second stanza is how fate and politics decree, finely written but, but.. we all know - surely to goodness which of the two keeps Humankind human.. ..

[Tom]

Inded we do or at least should know which, thank you emmajoygreen 😊

[Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn..]

Tom,

I would like to say that this piece is beautiful, but, in truth, it is not ... It is, however, splendidly & magnificently written with heart wrenching imagery that simply whisks one away to that battlefield of long ago that has become those modern battlefields of today, in places say, like in Ukraine, for example, or Iraq & Afghanistan not so very long ago ... Call a man your enemy, stupidly so, because your government incites a perfectly sane mind to the insanity of butchery's slaughter of one's fellow man who, at one time, had the same plan as did you: live out a happy, peaceful, & safe life with wife & children, grow old & die naturally, & not upon the slaughterhouse killing floor of that one more war that needs to be fought in order to put an end to War as the epitome's EPPITOMY of truest defining definition of that terminology's term known as, Oxymoron: Men stupid & hardheaded as oxen, become morons to boot in putting on boots for the battlefield of trampling other Human Beings underfoot of wounded, bloodshed-slain, & butchered ... All the preceding babbling of wit's words, I saw in my mind's eyes as I read this exquisitely written piece of fine Poetry that does NOT euphemize War as that lie of Glory, but is, in every sane sense, all about the loss of fathers & sons, and, sometimes, even mothers and daughters as collateral damage is seldom taken into account by those who do mount and wage war from afar, pushing buttons of missiles, bombs, & drones in feeling nothing of nada for they lives they have taken, and the anguish they have sown ...

When good men, one day somewhere down the line of saying enough is enough, cease being Oxymorons upon battlefield after battlefield, and stand up and say, "We will murder our fellowman NO MORE, then, on that day, War will end, and not a moment before that radiant shing of the sun upon Mankind's Humanity as The Human Race ... Will such a day ever come, arrive? ... Not likely within our lifetimeS, I sadly do say ...

Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn de Graham

[Tom]

Thanks muchly Marvin, your visit & discerning interpret of my poem is both welcome & greatly appreciated!!

[Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn de Graham]

Tom,

The pleasure was truly all mine, for the only glory to be had in War is the bodies of fallen soldiers heaped to the Hellish-Heavens of that sky of Man's brutish insanity of making War in the name of ending War, no where to be seen of no where in sight ... Man is stricken with blindness of heart & mind, and has long lost the root's defining meaning of that which once made him Human: Humane: To exhibit, possess, & demonstrate compasioon & mercy for other living creatures, a trait which should, by common sense logic's reason, apply first and foremost to our fellow Human Beings as Man's Mankind, and just not, or, only to dogs & cats ... So, where's the Humane Society for Humans as Humanity? ... Go figure!

[red93]

Excellent and quite a difficult trick to pull off, evoking the afterlife - nice Work.

[Tom]

Thank you red93

[Katrina Mckeown]

Great imagery you capture war well in this powerfully descriptive write of war and the sweet innocence of children.
Katrina

[Tom]

Thank you Katrina

[Robert Haigh]

A sad truth that war is still with us, here in the 21st century. So many dead over the many centuries. My father fought in WW2 and his father fought in WW1. I'm glad that I was never called to arms, and my sons also.

[Tom]

Many thanks Robert

[Coyote Poetry]

A wonderful shared Tom. I lost three good friends to the new wars. My father lost many in the Vietnam and Korean war. We remember our friends conversations. My friends loved the forest, fishing days and their children. Our friends lost to war. Their dreams become part of our dreams. I loved the places you took me.
Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[Tom]

Thank you my friend, your review is both relatable and rewarding!!

[Coyote Poetry]

You are welcome dear Tom.

[Neville]

you've heard the expression 'walls have ears write ... well this one's got eyes as well innit .............. N

[Tom]

well said, nice one Neville!!

[Neville]

..... you really are more than merely welcome Tom, much more :)

[Yellow Butterfly]

This was a deeply poignant piece to commemorate the life of a very brave and courageous ‘fallen’ solider albeit truly heartbreaking depiction of the horrors of war. The last couple of stanzas capturing the afterlife …finally at rest. A heart wrenching and touching read at the same time. Very moving Tom and so so beautifully penned.

YB

[Tom]

Thank you Yellow Butterfly!!

[Yellow Butterfly]

You’re welcome!

[Neville]

.................................. still as brill when visited for the umpteenth time :)

[Tom]

Many thanks Neville 😁

[Neville]

Always welcome Tom