Present

Present

 

 

stones for each tenant

invisible celebrity etched 

into moss covered tags

muted echoes of gunshot residue

and torn flags waving in powdered attention

 

we remember all of them

on this day, then forget---

 

how ephemeral the memory

that is diluted from 

residents rent,

eviction of breath and identification

 

they all live here,

the nameless

soldiers screaming

in silent roll call.

 

 

erin-cilberto

5/26/19

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

Very touching tribute to the sacrifice of the fallen in combat. Those stones a permanent reminder of the sacrifice they made. We have one life and we don't always have choices. I can't look at film or hotographs of a war cemetery without shedding tears at the magnitude of loss and grief. And when I look at my two adult grandsons I am reminded of how fortunate I am that I have not suffered the loss that some have. Very moving Jacob.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for sharing, Chris....
j.

[Ted Kniffen]

Going to any cemetery, let alone one that contains the graves of soldiers...decorated with those tiny flags fluttering in the breeze, or looking at the mementos left by family members to commemorate their loss is a sad thing indeed...and yet we cannot forget and let them lie there alone. They paid the dues we asked of them...the least we can do is see that they are not forgotten.

There is a tiny cemetery on Ocracoke Island NC that contains the bodies of four British sailors who washed ashore after their ship was torpedoed during WW2. The land is leased in perpetuity to Britain, but is maintained by the townsfolk. As touching a memorial as any I have visited.

A good write, j. A fitting tribute.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for sharing the story of Ocracoke Island NC...that is really nice that the townsfolk still take care of it.
j.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

You evoke pictures of long forgotton cemetries overgrown and with fallen stones and worn, torn old flags as a memento to burial in this sad but wonderfully described piece.. We have Remembrance Day in November and most of us revert to forgetting once it has come and gone.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for your kind words, John,
j.

[emmajoy]

A fine, somehow beautiful tribute, j .. but sadly, as with other nations, the facts you infer in you poetry are far too often true. Perhaps less of an annual celebration of death, instead a daily thought of, 'Thank God, I'm here to remember.. .''

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your understanding words, em,

j.