Down To The Hollow

Blood, blood, vainglorious blood

Russet-rivered tracks in molasses of mud

Follow me, follow

down to the hollow

and wallow.

Inglorious blood.

Carcasses, carts, lost tins and innards

Bully-beef guts of squashed caterpillars

Urine-dried khaki and trench-foot stench

Rain-soaked sweat in a gangrene clench

More slugs than snails or puppy-dog tails

And the gloom of a thousand grey Mondays.

Never once taught in a decade of Sundays

In a church-load of sermons and sunny fete fun-days

Of marching Christian goodness, brass bands side-by-side

Soldiers of children played war-games and died

No pride denied for the village green military

And their clockwork performance for the boys'-toys artillery.

Though you may shield your eyes and remember those sighs

As the shells cracked Hoorahs! to the cheers and the cries

It's the glimpse of a sun-ray through mustard-smoked skies

It's the tragedy of loss, of innocence to lies

The rotting-cabbage smell of the flesh and the flies

Where no one is winning and anyone dies.

You're a coward, you're a killer

You're a saviour, you're a death

A knee-jerk reaction and a wasted breath

You can pray for salvation to your God in His heaven

But in one day you'll ruin what He did in seven.

Reviews

[Abdul Aziz]

Well, I'm wondering what I should say that Augustus already hasn't! I do not usually indulge in praising without giving reasons.
But I have to say that this is simply the best poem I've read on the Cafe so far.
I've recommended it to as many friends as I could.
And I just can't stop reading it. There are so many emotions, so many images conveyed with such an awesome sense of rhythm, it is just mind boggling!
100/100 , if you ask me.

[mope]

Another example of what you do so well. You've such a good ear for the rhythm that I couldn't resist reading it out loud - and I appreciated it even more. Ta.

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

This is powerful ! These words fit this image perfectly... as if we can hear the man's thoughts setting their in the mud and decay.
What a wonderful last verse that sums it all up:

You're a coward, you're a killer
You're a saviour, you're a death
A knee-jerk reaction and a wasted breath
You can pray for salvation to your God in His heaven
But in one day you'll ruin what He did in seven.

Very powerful poem, Devons.

Chloe

[Crowley]

Thats why you are my new hero. That was really, really good. No use in pointing out what it is about, or the strengths and the weaknesses...this one fired on all eight my brotha. Damn, I coulda swore I wrote this....you been peaking in my diary haven't you. that last line is a doozy....excellent work.

[jenniewren (J.W. Bouwma..]

wow.. this is gut-wrenching.. the sing-songyness of it lulls you into a sense of false calm, but when the words seep into your brain wrinkles BAM!! they hit with air-strike precision.

the genius of this is? it reminded me, in its rhythm, of songs we'd sing at summer camp. that part is what chilled me. sort of a play between the glorious adages of war, the tales we tell our children to get them to grow up to be soldiers, and the horrifying truth of what man does to another..

this is an "epic" poem, both in the scope, and in the reality.

just excellent..