Jeffrey Hull

Confederate graves, Camp Butler National Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, 2006.
Robert Lawton. Creative Commons license.


By rank and file the stones parade
   In springtime warm or winter deep;
Entrenched in final defilade,
    In easy peace the soldiers sleep.

On muggy August afternoons
   No lads march by in dusty lines,
Nor ring those jaunty caisson tunes
   Past groves of aromatic pines.

Those rebel boys who took up war
   And joked and jibed what such portends
Got what - or more than - bargained for
   And lie in silence with their friends.

The last of fading evening's bees
   Buzz quiet Taps as home they go;
Sweet honeysuckle perfumed breeze
   No longer interests those below.


© Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Hull