1812 – poems 2 die for

FROZEN

I am a
plastic action figure

to hazard a guess
you who position me
might call
me Napoleonic

here we
are now crossing a river

the bridge I am on now
may not be still standing
when we return

but
led with acuity
there is no possibility
that it
all
go wrong

that here in our ranks
supremely confident of glory
we might
be rebuffed, die
in the snow
become some
carnival of death
broken and shattered,
for all
who might follow
a most cautionay tale

but here we are
marching, one massive
armee together, when
the dice
they get thrown

will all
spring into battle
do our
soldierly duty

loyal
to a fault
to flag
and Emperor

ready
to give our
little lives
in combat

freeze in the snow, starve,
or die
otherwise
unnecessarily

slowly, quickly,
in manner most horrible

returned to
that big plastic or
cardboard box
where plastic soldiers go

without thought, without
afterthought,

without thought at all, feelings
or memory, waiting to
be called, frozen in
stance
soldiers
to the end