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Open Poetry #33
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Kevo
Member
since 2004-06-02
Posts 466
Navarro County, Texas, USA

0 posted 2004-08-10 06:03 AM


I'm back!  I hope you enjoy this one!  My computer is fixed and you'll be seeing me around here again!

Warm regards to all!  It's good to be back.


Stand and Deliver
Pickett's Charge July 3rd, 1863, Gettysburg)

"March on young men!
Destiny awaits you.
The sun shall shine on you today!

All the world shall
embrace your valor!
Heroes of the day, all of you.

Steady boys.  Steady.
Show them your bayonets today boys,
baptized in their crimson tides!

Do not yield this fated day to the last of you!
Cause has ridden hard upon your purposed backs.
You stand today for all Virginians!

Against an enemy not of your choosing
but of your fellow countrymen principled
the plunder of your homes,
your lives, your rights!

Fear not the cannon-fire men!
Embrace it only as you turn them
upon desperate faces and yellow backs!

Unleash Hell upon them all boys!
By blood and breath
fury shall reign on this field before you
at the hands of the Virginians!

We shall have ourselves the day boys!
And the night?  Of sweet rewards.
Give them mercy at the slash of the sword!

Let the thunder of the cannons speak
loudly to them that they may understand
the resolve in which Virginians defend our
honor and our homes!  

This day of reckoning is upon us
chiseling the minutes of the day,
the record of our cause,
and the registry of sacrifice
upon the alabaster stone.

Fall not with your backs to them but
charging them in defiance
of their great trespass!

For old Virginia boys!  
For old Virginia!

Your deeds today shall echo into history.
Your finest hours awaits you!

March on boys!  
March on!
Meet death
and cast him aside!

Do not despair.
Rejoice in assured victory here
and now upon this desparate field.

And, through it all remember
that you are all Virginians!
That they cannot dispel!

Now, stand and deliver boys!
Stand and deliver!
Give them the bayonet!
Let them know you are Virginians!

For old Viriginia boys!
On the double-time!
March!

Charge!"

"For old Virginia"
echoed across the field
into eternity ...as promised.

They were, all of them,
heroes of the day.
now chiseled into that alabaster stone
...as promised.

"General Lee, sir."

"General Pickett, form your division."

"But, sir, I have no division."

General Pickett never recovered.

Copyright, Kevin V. Reese, 2004

© Copyright 2004 Kevin Reese - All Rights Reserved
Margherita
Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236
Eternity
1 posted 2004-08-10 06:38 AM


quote:
"But, sir, I have no division."



.... and still they go on!

Your poem is a dramatic reminder of what wars do to humanity.

Love and peace.
Margherita

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