The Wordle
SUNDAY WHIRL
asks us to use the words above in the Wordle
A SOLDIER'S MEMORY
I sit here in the dappled shade with, all around me, peace,
But the memories of a dreadful War never seem to cease.
Each row and pleat of farming land brings back a memory
Of a terrible battlefield of yore and a young soldier; me.
I hear a shell swish through the air with a ghastly strident scream
The piercings of the ear-drums; how impossible they seem!
They emit a sound the pitch of which is too much to describe.
And then the groans of soldiers, both ours and the other tribe.
Why this waking delirium? Why my unending plight?
I sit here in the dappled shade and old horrors reignite!
*
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REACHING
From the day we arrive on the planet
We are reaching for something more;
To lift up our heads from our pillows;
To reach up and open a door;
To learn how to speak, how to argue;
To travel abroad on our own;
To meet the right 'someone' and marry;
To make sure that we're not alone.
We're never content with just 'being';
We never say 'Well, I've arrived'.
We still journey on to perfection
However it may be contrived.
The urge to improvement was with us
Before we came down from the trees.
And the urge that inspired and fulfilled us
May yet bring us down to our knees!
This reaching and searching and longing
Has made human kind what it is.
The danger is we can't help reaching
For frippery, foible and fizz!
'If I buy one more dress I'll be happy!.
'If I get that new car I'll be fine!'
'I haven't yet seen Argentina!'
'I must buy the very best wine!'
We're restless and seeking and searching
And sometimes we're not sure what for;
But we know that 'perfection' is somewhere;
And we're going to find it for sure.
'I must marry someone with money!'
'I'd be happy if I had a cat!'
'If I dye my hair red I'll look better!'
' I'd be right if I wasn't so fat!'
So the instincts that made us keep striving,
To rise up from the primeval slime,
Are turning against us for certain;
It's only a matter of time!
All this wanting and needing and reaching
Is sending us all round the bend!
We'll be buried beneath all the 'must-haves'
And be smothered with 'stuff' in the end!
*
5 comments:
I much prefer your wordle poem to mine. You have gone right to the heart of the matter, one of the individual tragedies of war.
I like your zoo bus poem as well, but it seemed a bit anticlimactic after the emotion of the soldier's story.
We all seem to have had the same idea from the wordle words. They just seem to have war and battles in them and I think it's also coming up for Remembrance Day on the 11th too.
Enjoyed both pieces, thank you.
Thanks for stopping by to read my wordle...I'm actually getting some time today to do the same.
It seems "battles" of all kinds became the common denominator for those wordle words. Really well-captured internal struggle of soldiers. I liked how you started and ended with dappled shade.
As for the bus -- if that thing came alive it would be my worst nightmare come true! I don't know that I could get on that bus!
~Paula
The image of war through the eyes of one combatant is so much more effective than an overall view. This is a tremendous write.
War is a terrible thing. Your poem is powerful. You've led us to the core of a soldier's pain. Well done.
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