There have always been times of war. Biblical war. Civil war. World war. Cold war. Unnecessary war. War is WAR! War is hell. So many lives taken. Young. Old. Age knows no boundaries when it comes to war. The visions of war are woven with bloody images and broken bone. Within battlefields reside ghosts of our ancestry.
Today let's embrace the past and take a look at the first world war...
The battle at Passchendaele |
World War I took place on foreign soil with America being drawn into its midst in 1917. American losses — 48,000 killed in battle, 56,000 lost to disease — seemed trifling compared to the staggering costs paid by other countries.
“The horror of it all kept me awake for weeks, nor has the awfulness of it all deserted me, but at first it seemed a horrid dream.”
~Anonymous
With war in Europe, all eyes and ears remained keenly aware
of its presence and acutely alert to its impact on the United States. Courage
and allegiance to America remained stalwart in the face of imminent danger;
battles were won and lost on foreign soil.
Landscapes collapsed under the brutality of war
Relinquishing timeless relics unto life’s plight
Variegated shades of crimson covered the hillsides
Capturing lifelessness within dawn’s early light
The encumbrance of blight, life in death
Shrouded fields once
lush from flowing streams
Spoils and scars saddled the countryside
While endless flames blazed even in dreams
Night became bright as day
As flashes riveted across a star-shelled sky
Blood curdling sights and sounds
Echoed within each and every battle cry
One water bottle for forty men
Such anguish one could not ignore
The ghastly stench of death and dying
One could only gravely abhor
Anticipation of life’s last breath
Made even the brightest day pale
Yet in the midst of such bleak darkness
Hopes of peace nonetheless prevailed
Singing and whistling heard from the trenches
Authenticated life still truly existed
Despite the cold, hunger and suffering
©2013 Awakenings
Sharla Lee Shults
“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country
is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”
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