VERDUN
Another quiet morning, Here in the rear
No attack, no big push, nothing much here to fear
No thunder of guns, just the loom of the sun
Beyond the still-dark land of Verdun
Lighting the far Eastern sky all aglow
Bathing in soft light the fields below
Too gentle as yet to starkly show
What's been done to the landscape by thousands of guns
Which then as the sun rises higher appears
Shell-pitted, corpse-littered, savagely seared
In all its ruptured, horrible weird
Naked sadness.
No birdsong this morning, no rustling of leaves
Stark sentinel stumps of silent dead trees
And distant machine guns clearing their throats
As bleary-eyed men in grey overcoats
Make sure nothing is breathing, of flesh or of blood
Make sure nothing but ghosts are left to encroach
On their Kaiser's personal plateau of mud.
© nigel hallworth 2014
The battle of Verdun started in February 1916 and continued on and off until December.