Once again, I’m posting a poem to meet New Jersey poet Adele Kenny’s writing challenge. Adele has tasked me to write a poem that somehow deals with a migration. In this poem, from my developing manuscript The Journals of Lt. Arthur Kendal Everly: Poems of the American Civil War, Everly, the poem’s speaker, laments on his new title. He is now a lieutenant in the United States Army. He’s been given his uniform. He’s been given his gun. He’s made a a noble, terrible migration.
Visit Adele’s blog to read her challenge.
Blue Suit
May 25, 1861
Indeed, burdened
with the robes of war,
I’ve been named lieutenant.
Gold buttons, as bright
as Ares’ eyes…and a sword
hanging from my hip,
a bolt of Zeus’ fury.
I’ve been given a pistol.
It’s cold and heavy – a dead thing,
but something terrible beats
within it, wicked and hungry.
I fear that in some tomorrow,
I’ll be asked to feed it.
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Wow. That is a powerful one.
Thank you. I hoped it carried some power.