Schwartzkopf, Duke of Iraq

      "I will go wash; and drown these desert honors
      that stick in my throat. Three weeks before the grand
      defeat of our enemies, I dreamt my tent squalerous,
      ruined lieutenants killed by infiltrating mustard gas
5     that couldn't sniff out the winning colors
      of our almighty flag. My aide snored on
      under his moony brow, refusing to wake
      for anything less than the Judgement Day; I'll pass.
      In the wheezing trenches we squeezed off rounds like mad
10    in an unending philippic against the damned.
      Dust-erased faces blink skyward from their rust lakes
      of blood, off, on, off, on.
      Now downed in a North Carolina airplane hanger
      and tired of the itching laurels that itch my scalp
15    I stare bemused at what our wanting has brought us here:
      Disinterred love scrambles up my lap."

 

From the collection "Contemporaries"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.