Smithereens Press Chapbooks Taking the Oath by Tom French | Page 10

Trench Art, Janeville

Had a Blessed Virgin been
all each shell had ever contained,
each sealed in her steel alcove,
I imagine the war - every bombardment
an Assumption; millions
of airborne Virgins
gaining on Heaven,
then coming to ground
head first in No Man’s Land.
Now every roadside grotto will be
an unexploded shell
conceived on a grand scale,
where the bomb disposal units fathers, brothers, sons suited up, moving like moon men,
will kneel before lifting a hand,
and pray to set eyes
on their flesh and blood again.

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