Ties to War

Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Hospital Sketches

war's first
glance no vacant
stare scribbled on her mind
a hospital sketch displays the
battle

lines form
jagged hard rows
of abandoned railroad
ties moaning bodies bowed faces
drawing

strength from
nurses weaving
warped limbs through cloth spun in
secret hopes of miraculous
power

Beds to the front of them,
Beds to the right of them,
Beds to the left of them,
Nobody blundered.

sheltered
no longer by
overhead trains charging--
no bursts of encouraging steam
cover

dampened
stealthy shadows
the ties are alone and
beaten to splintered pieces of
silent

spirit
threading needles
nurses knit together
the dead craving for distance from
living

With coffee not cannon plied,
Each must be satisfied,
Whether they lived or died;
All the men wondered.