Rumors: I am Lieutenant – Poem 4

Rumors

April 15, 1861

Rumors pass from breath to breath
long before headlines bellow the news:

Fort Sumter Surrenders; South Carolina
Fires First Volley – War!!

Men gather on street corners,
flourish walking sticks, brandish them
like swords sharpened against
the beasts of ungodliness,

but what monster do these men rail against
and will it recede into the darkness
as their bravado demands?

War will not easily slip
back into its den.

Father, it has come.

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