The Haunting of War

The water is still

The photo

Black and white

Stories told

Of men

Who have died

Knots braided

Dreams confiscated

Drifting silently

Caisson is a friend

Who carries truth

In the wind

And the powder monkey

Shines

Some will grow old

Some will die

For freedom or for rights

Freedom rings

In the ditches and the streams

In the blood that flows

Like a rainbow beam

A battle cry

A drum sighs

The flags rise

As the heartbeat of advance dies

Another man fallen

Ideals swollen

Of thoughts and things

Death knows none of these

And takes no sides

War never ends

It repeats again, and again

As the men’s faces stare back in time