Tag: Civil War

Total War

Published on by @DwPolkLeave a comment

as in complete
destruction, Sherman’s neckties
with hogs shot
among burning bales
of hay, like
that day when
Atlanta left earth
ashes upward while
babies and old
people cried for
past lives lost
plantations and emancipated
slaves following sky’s
drinking gourd, and
we say that
violence isn’t the
answer, except that
it was, and
the Union survived

Girl Reads Civil War Poem

Published on by @DwPolk2 Comments

This poem is called Maggots,
Samantha stands in front of the

classroom with a sly smile. Her
piece inspired by historic conflict,

skips Gettysburg, Antietam, and
all the words of war. No rebel yell,

or regiments, she leaves nurse
descriptions and widow tears for

other poems to divulge. Starts
at the end, she speaks her black

beginning, maggots chewing,
spewing flesh of men without faces,

corpses all in their places for the feast.
She maintains throughout, that nature

intended such death, that it was all
meant to be. Not for North or South,

but for the legless larva to probe
darkness, with their bloody glee.