Appomattox Surrender
1865
Wandering carnage at twilight
General Lee espied General Washington
surveying, engorged on war
now engaged in discourse melancholy
for their commonwealth.
By bodies boating
fell talk of pride and valor
the price of tobacco
the cost of life
banquettes and lunettes
demi-lunes and barbettes –
vive la France –
sometimes you must give up
ground to gain ground,
interchangeable cogs
hammered on the anvil of Mars.
Are my slaves well?
We fight for benevolence,
democracies care for even those
who know not they need it most.
How is my Virginia?
Cruciform dogwood petals blush
blood red berries splitting
wafting mountain laurel blue ridge
rambling scarlet cardinal
resplendent by his dingy partner
protect this grandeur, my land.
This is you land no longer
the despot’s heel is at the door
long knives unsheathed
the wheat beheaded
chaff despoiling kernels,
bearded corn regiments
shorn to rotting silage
for brutish rooters.
Our land ruled by the planter’s geometry
now flowering delight sunward
we have hung together
longer than anyone expected
have endured more
horrific Virginia reels
to the tattoo of sabers
gashing descending stars,
clung together grasping
waterfalls in empty fists
pummeling old ways dashed
on a stony resolve
to rid us from us forever..
And how goes Martha?
Do gentlefolk speak fondly
of her at tea, Mount Vernon
shimmer still in the southern sun?
I know the ways of death
but prefer to dwell on the living,
apricot marmalade biscuits
whiskey cascades pigeon pie
bellies distended not by overdue burials
or blown-off jaws telling half truths
of parapet gunners
overlooking the obvious.
By happy while alive
because death lasts forever.
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