Blood Masks the Lea
Blood masks the lea, the blasted loam
upon whose breasts soldiers came home.
The earth, herself, held each to chest,
the mist of sky killed with each breath
as ruined green became their tomb.
Men strafed by shells and gassed by fume:
cast akimbo, blown to their doom
entrenched, barb fenced; death coalesced;
blood masks the lea.
