“A Bombing Post in the Snow”
Deep and crisp but undulating,
A snowfall masks the horrors beneath:
The cadavers and the vile detritus of war,
Strewn by strife’s cruel wasteland and death…
Like loose and trailing Yuletide trimmings,
Flailing barbed-wire hangs awry,
Whilst distant posts like burial crosses lean,
Beneath a leaden, matted, hellish sky…
Cocooned inside a crater, four soldiers,
Bombers or grenade-throwers are isolated;
Two snatch rests, whilst the others guard, grim-faced:
No camouflage here, their plight seemingly ill-fated…
Thoughts that those are Santa’s footprints in the snow
Are banished in such keen and watchful eyes;
Yet perhaps death has trodden those fateful steps,
Whilst in Blighty a wife grieves and a bereaved mother cries…
Pete Ray
November 10th 2017
John Nash’s painting of the same title…
He was a bomber and grenade-thrower during World War 1, hence the reality of his picture.
The cocoon looks spookily like a basking seal, with the helmets of the two resting soldiers forming its sad eyes…
One soldier appears to have cloth covering the back of his neck, the others would surely be clear targets in the snow, despite the depth of the crater…
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