Hundreds

I can't imagine–that number, those graves. -Aura

I was good with numbers once

I knew a hundred was ten tens

I knew a million was ten hundred-thousands

I could see it

like so many atoms in the period of a sentence.

I knew a mile was the distance

from my house to the library.

Well,

I went to Arlington once.

I wouldn’t have been surprised

if acres went on forever,

although it hardly goes a single mile in any direction.

On either side of me was an

endless stretch

the limit out of sight.

I knew the cemetery was finite.

I had to drive around the fence to get there.

There couldn’t be more than half a million buried there.

It felt like tens of millions of souls stacked high into the sky,

perched on stone tablet and tree branch.

And,

standing in the middle,

the graves just wrapped around the entire world.

Those white stones held it together

like clean gauze over the blood of an open wound.

They were

    so

        orderly

everything was aligned so nicely

properly

beautifully.

And there are hundreds of these all across the world.

I could feel the loss around me.

and even though the graves were so neat

and immaculate

it just felt like a mass grave

heaps of bodies laid

over and over each other

until they blended together like

they were all the same person.

And there are hundreds.

Bigger,

more.

I can’t even begin to imagine that number.

Author's Note

Written after I cried during the World War I lecture in my European history class. I hope you felt some of that from it. -Aura

Reviews

[DaughterNature]

This was really beautiful. I, too, was in awe of the vastness of the Arlington National Cemetery. I think you do a pretty good job of creating the image of it, too. I like the preamble to this piece, about numbers and how far a mile is. But, I think you might have belabored the point at the end of your poem. I would be very happy if it just ended at "They were/so/orderly." I think that would give it a poignant punch of an ending.

[Aura Inanna]

I think I agree. When I was writing it I just felt like I needed to get more out, because it was about a really emotional topic for me, and maybe I should've tried to write two poems instead of one long one. I kind of like the ending as itself, but maybe it just doesn't belong with the rest?
Thanks for the thought-provoking critique! :)

[Brittany Zedalis]

╰☆╮I went to Arlington when I was in 8th grade and I remember being amazed by how it looked. This is wonderfully written.╰☆╮

[Delmar Cooper]

My wife and I visited Chattanooga last year. Saw the aquarium, and the Yankee cemetary. Thousands with the same date. All those dead men just waiting for my wife and I to see the fish and by the way...

[Ashira Macy]

Wow, this was so powerful! I like how you wrote it in a prose like format, and focused on the story rather than flowering up the words. It really is amazing how much death is around us, especially in wartime, and when you look at how neatly we organize graves it almost seems wrong and disrespectful. Because death is not organized, it can be brutal and ugly and sad, but certainly not organized. Really brilliant work on this, it was amazing.

[Aura Inanna]

Thanks so much, sometimes the ways we honor the dead are just so strange and unforgiving that they beg to be written about. I'm glad you picked that up. :)

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

This poem gave me the shivers. Well written

[Briana O'Connor]

Your words spun beautifully. The grave emotion was palpable and meaningful. This is the kind of piece that leaves a mark on the heart. Well penned.

[C. Rose]

Congratulations!
You are a finalist of Promote Me! VII.
I am sending out 120 read requests on your behalf.

Use the link below to vote by 10/31/14
http://www.writerscafe.org/contests/Promote-Me%21-VII-%28War%29/50412/

[Aura Inanna]

Thank you so much!

[Lyan]

Good work, very saddening. but its the facts of life.