After the battle
not so much
a battlefield
more a
Litterfeild
the litter left
after every battle
every single time
rifles - large and smaller guns
broken gun carriages - wagon wheels
pouches of ammunition - grenades
broken rifles , rifles that were never fired
tin 'ats - look like peeled spuds - parts of heads still with in helmets
bayonets , some dark with blood - some never got that close
all the means to kill and maim - lay around - dud shells
that that is salvageable
put back to use - will - be - recycled

The Litterfeild - almost a quiet place - apart from

Arms , legs , hands feet , hands , heads , sculls , fleshes less
Rib cages , half heads , chins , knees , fingers , toes , back bones
what belongs to who - Allies - Germans - none will ever be known
The freshly dead - look like covered in black blankets
A sound - courses the blackness to lift - fly's - lift off
Only to return their blackness again blankets returning to cover the dead
Rats , ravens , crows , feral dogs , cats , consuming the feast - maybe even wolves
Till only the white bleaching bones - rotting sandbags - rusting barbwire - bullets fired - unfired still in clips - shells landing - duds killing no one - in later years some claim unsuspecting victims - same old same old - wars just never have a true ending do they!

Repetitive! Rather like this story-poem - in parts!
War - repeats and repeats it old self - same old horrors - with only variations on wars theme - lessons - only learned - how to make war more affective
World War One - an on the job training - that how general Haig - saw the Battle Of The Somme - the three battles of Passchdaele - close on a million died , both sides! Haig - saw the deaths worth wile! The silent columns - of the dead - say somert rather different!

Oh yes the The dead - The wounded - The body parts
the sound of the wounded - quieting down as they die
wounded succumbing to injury's suffered that day
wounded checked out fore salvaging or fore recycling
patched up - sent back in to the mincing machine of body and mind
after battle - the battling army's have moved on

The dead buried - ASP - to prevent further deaths due to decease
undermining further the fighting strength of the army
the dead rolled - thrown - chucked - into - shell craters - with minimal - ceremony

The Litterfield







ken d williams

The Dyslexic Wordsmith