Poetry for Perilous Times

THE FOOL CALLS FOR CIVIL WAR

each evening in Gettysburg
the armies embrace
at the peach orchard
the bloody angle
the copse of trees
where they still hear the horses scream
and the fields between the ridges
are still littered with limbs
where the stench of death
still overpowers the night air
and the spirits have long-known
they will never move on
from this place they were certain
would crown them in glory
forever and ever hallelujah amen

Poem Notes: ‘The Fool Calls for Civil War’ was written after visiting Gettysburg in 2021. Our nation would be well-served if anyone advocating a second civil war were required to visit Gettysburg.

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Joseph Neely, all rights reserved