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Plethora

From dawn to dusk on through the strident sorrow Bullets and bayonets pierce flesh as tomorrow Is closer yet farther than mind's eye ever sees Vanishing from view as soldiers fall to their knees

Reflections for one moment in a myriad of tears Ripples then youth scatters ashes with fears Human wave assaults of sacrificial breath Give no grounds to rounds of scattered death

Where once the torrents refused to yield Along the once fallow now spirited field Beneath dark dense fervent fumes Unknown masses claim unmarked tombs

A plethora of forgotten souls to violence

Huddle in harrowing deafness and shuddering silence Some empty eyed, others vacant hearted With faith nonexistent, dreams and vision departed

The turmoil that is and was a single life

Slays like a conqueror, cuts deep like a knife Ivory pommel – ebony blade Crimson stained uniforms without parade

"The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori."

This poem is dedicated to the poets of World War I.

"What passing-bells for those who die like cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,- The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling them from sad shires." -Wilfred Owen ("Anthem for Doomed Youth")

(1893-1918)
November 4, just seven days before the Armistice, he was caught in a German machine gun attack and killed in action on the banks of the Sambre-Oise canal. He was twenty-five when he died.
The bells were ringing on November 11, 1918, in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice when the doorbell rang at his parent's home, bringing them the telegram telling them their son was dead.
Military Casualties in World War I
1914-1918
Belgium...............45,550
British Empire.......942,135
France.............1,368,000
Greece................23,098
Italy................680,000
Japan..................1,344
Montenegro.............3,000
Portugal...............8,145
Romania..............300,000
Russia.............1,700,000
Serbia................45,000
United States........116,516
Austria-Hungary....1,200,000
Bulgaria..............87,495
Germany............1,935,000
Ottoman Empire.......725,000

My Other Poetry sites
Fire Giver
About JS Moore
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Haunted

Email: crimsonrogue@yahoo.com