this text is is about the mild unthinking atrocity of latent indifference


PlayGround by M.A.Meddings a challenge entry to Nepenthes challenge

During the English civil war a battle was fought at Newbury in Berkshire in 1643.
On a spot now called wash common, which got its name from the fact that the hand to hand fighting, was so fierce, that the land was 'awash with blood', the battle was at its most gruesome. When it was over they buried the dead horses in one mass grave, by piling earth on top of the mass slaughter. They did the same with the human corpses. The grass covered mounds can still be seen to this day. The area is now a recreation area and kids play ground.


On the pile
Where they buried the Horses
A kids slide
Runs on jagged contour
And somehow
The bloodshed
Of 1643 seems wasted
Yet out of the anger
Of pitched
Hand to hand battle
Comes the joy
Of children playing
But did they have to
Celebrate a freedom
So hard won
By putting a kids slide
On top of
A mass grave



Poetry by lastromantichero The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 509 times
Written on 2006-09-03 at 09:30

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Arti
I guess all the world is built on some kind of grave or the other.
In some civilizations, the dead were buried just outside the huts they lived in and of course, the children played on the graves... Even the places we live in today were once homes and graves. Okay, so we dont dig deep enough to find the skeletons and coffins. It dosent change reality though.
I think its a symbolism... probably unintended, but all the same, its still there. That life goes on. And the old gives place to the new.
2006-09-03


Troll
is it fitting? is it wrong? however uncertain the answers may be to those questions, one thing should go without saying... this is a thoughtful piece, almost enough to drive one to anger in thinking of it... another good one :)
2006-09-03



The playground built upon the mounds is strongly symbolic and can be interpreted in different ways. Out of this image, you've made a fine poem that makes us readers think!
2006-09-03


Kathy Lockhart
this is really a moving piece. I felt a chill run over me. The horrors of that time, seemingly unremembered and
unmemorialized. Your intro was so educational and you brought history to life! But those children never knowing what happened blissfully play in innocense upon top of a massacre. Somehow this just perplexes my mind. kathy
2006-09-03


keith nunes
eerie. fantastically interesting. thanks
2006-09-03