“All right Tom?”
“Yup ~~ I got it fixed ~~ let’s start.”
A slipping crumbly path through scratching brush’
down to the river road. Along the shore
a clanging leap of fire behind black trees
and a streak of shrillness slit the sky apart.
A sand road ~~ horses, guns in a cloudy rush,
and men, teeth clenched on tubes, who lashed and tore
through silence. Black still slopes ~~ a distant sneeze.
“Hear that? I tell you ~~ my eyes are beginning to smart.”
A vague black gulch ahead, and the secret hush
of evil creeping in the dark ~~ We passed
two soldiers, pain-white, and a man they bore
between, blind twisting head and drunken knees,
~~ like Christ.
“Come on, Bud ~~ There ~~ You just been gassed.”
(John Allan Wyeth)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Christianity Poems, Fire Poems, Jesus Christ Poems, Silence Poems, Secrets Poems, Good & Evil Poems, Soldiers PoemsBased on Keywords: gulch, gassed, shrillness, crumbly, yup