Give Them No Pillow For Their Head Even Of Granite

(on the removal of certain war memorials)

give them no pillow for their heads even of granite

haul them away with their unearned wreaths of laurel

suspend their lousy pay:

let the chorus that surrounds their evacuated  stage surge on

as though they were freshly laid and left to crows

let carrion tribunals be gathered in this bold update

send their angels away

who are they to receive the honour

of having their death masks made 

lay not the sweetheart's myrtle wreath

in any possible proximity

before them though they were only pawns to other men's say so..

or called up as surrogate victims. fodder for the profiteers

ah ah shed no shed no tears

let their names unheralded be not even what snows can whisper over

and glaring light henceforth reveal only the shame

of the remains of blank pedestals and the petals scattered

in futility over their marred shadows.

we want it that way o we do

the harrowing left to us anew

the bereaving left to

court the air who knows where

the harbours in this disappearing act after the fact

the drowning columns.

though in leafy shade

they had long been ignored by passerby 

part of the background of days and artifacts

forever at their backs

the nightmare trumpets in retreat

fanning the night. the awol and the mad children.

stumbling the other way over brier and branch

wild in their tears

the unpensioned in no flight.

their pension death.and their preamble too.

let them never breathe stone breath again

now never laid to rest by our decree

as though Christ had never come.

and Lincoln never said with charity with

malice toward none, let us bind up the wounds of the nation...

in this new shunning.

the childish drummers stilled. 

broken. stone stubble in the fields.

mary angela douglas 4 august 2020