He lifts a phantom hand up to his brow
Carrying weight from a score of long years.
Through blood of comrades dead, he crawled up sand
As Nazi guns menaced above his head.
All of twenty-one and off to a war
A captive of duty to freedom's hope.
He waded through the snow and ice of death
And liberated Auschwitz with disgust
For those who use the freedom of their power
To fuel such hate and force their brother's Hour.
He lost his life to a tyrants machine,
But it was freely given for a hope
That generations after him would cling
To the ghost of duty, and remember
The implications of freedom's high price.
This is my take on the prompt over at d-verse
This is also my first take at Iambic Pentameter blank verse.
freedom has a high price for sure and i have respect for all that risked or gave their life to change things..as a german the nazi mention hit me double...just yesterday i re-read about the diary of anne frank, a young girl who died in a KZ..a terrible time with terrible things happening
ReplyDeletefreedom def has a high price...so many lives given in its seeking....those guys have a wonderful sense of duty though...when they trench together and have to watch each others back...a bond is built...
ReplyDeleteJust lovely poem. And the iambic pentameter gives it a real stateliness and power. (Or additional stateliness and power.) Very well done.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was in WWII - at 18 /19 - on both fronts. He did return, but just died this year. A tremendous pride was felt by those veterans. A tremendous sense of honor and the fulfillment of duty in best sense of the word. Of course, everyone was in it then. (A big difference among others.) K.