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?

[John the Baptist]

No specific war is mentioned, but this one made me think of Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Nice transition from the soldier's outer world of combat to the inner world as his life ebbs away. Liked the vivid imagery and the spare delivery.
PS: Consider dropping the comma in line 1.

[Tom]

Thank you for your positive critique, yes I will amend the punctuation you point out 🤗

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and thank you for the wonderful writing...
i like the journey here...almost a backwards transgression....the horrors and useless loss of life that war brings..you create those scenes so vividly...
and then we go back in time with boy fishing...getting called to dinner...the innocent youth that will eventually find his way to the battlefield to be among the fallen....those fish will miss the sport...
j.

[Tom]

Thank you Jacob for your considered and relatable review of my poem! 🤗