Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
ON THE MARBLE LOT
It is not
the land you left,
that’s for sure,
nor the one you longed
to come back to,
that you dreamt of
in the mud and blood
of the war, your war,
counting the minutes
to home.
Not this pristine
rock-lined acre,
flanked with flags
and loved ones, today,
shoes forever shined,
inspections complete,
almost a half-million of you, now,
young blood cold,
together
alone.
If we lean in close
after banners and bands
have gone,
packed away
for next year,
will we hear echoes
of your voices
singing anthems for
a nation planned with care
and since,
a beacon for the world,
or will we hear new requiems
for the fading glory
that honors you
in stone?
Is there still a hallelujah
crying out
from the rocks–
from your bones–
or a dirge from rank and file
who paid it all
in that mud with your blood,
before, they say,
the marble lot, nearly full,
will be closed?
In each stilled life beneath,
or yet over there,
or somewhere else
nobody knows,
do taps play in a loop
in your mind and heart, today,
in a long-playing skip,
Why, Why, Why?
are other flags trampled,
flung aside and burned
by both those who do
and do not
know?
Those whose blood pulses still,
above the dirt,
who seem
to comprehend no cost
no glory
no loss
whose darker fantasies
of revolution
never take them to–
warn them of–
the abandoned potters’ fields
history shows?
But we will continue honoring
you here
and there and there and there,
offering
but token recompense
for your lives gone
from us,
for us,
for others.
Hear us through the the din of
the callow dreamers,
coup-makers, nation-breakers
who may never comprehend
honor and ageless gratitude,
and why we will always fly,
with respect and love,
millions of flags
on the marble lot
they would
so recklessly disown.
You, at least,
will rest in peace
they will never know.
~~~~~
Related redux: On The Occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Vietnam War Memorial… | pnissila
Image source: Events_at_Arlington_National_Cemetery_130527-G-ZX620-041.jpg (3842×2556) (wikimedia.org)
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