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Mosaic Musings...interactive poetry reviews _ ARCHIVES -> Member Recognition -> Valley of the Kings _ Re-Union, by AkhenhatenII

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Dec 7 03, 08:56

Hello MM viewers! I'm awarding the Faery Award to this fine piece by AkhenhatenII (currently in Homer's Homilies). Way to go, Tom! Thanks for coloring the Mosaic in faery nice style! :pharoah2

Re-Union

The sound of muted voices, heard from another age.
Spirits of long dead soldiers who'd turned their final page.
Old Joe sat in the corner, left all alone at last;
Hearing the secret whispers as he relived his past.

He'd met here with his comrades for over sixty years;
Fighting those ancient battles, the love, the joys, the tears.
Tonight the hall was empty, as Time, Immortal Foe
completed all that carnage, begun so long ago.

Old soldiers can be stubborn; Joe sat, and waited for
a lad named Tommy Atkins to march in through the door.
For Joe, and his pal Tommy had walked through shot and shell
Their loyalty and friendship surviving years of Hell.

Old Joe recalled the moment his leg was shot away,
and good old Tommy Atkins had saved his life that day.
Tom carried him to safety, and then, an old spent round
caught Tommy in the temple. He fell without a sound.

Both of the wounded heroes were invalided home,
They swore that they'd be comrades, wherever they might roam.
Now, at their last reunion, Joe sipped his tepid beer,
and waited with a deepening dread, for Tommy wasn't here.

Joe looked around in dark despair, his heart was sick and sore,
and then his face lit up with joy as Tom walked through the door.
Joe gasped in sheer amazement, for Tommy's face was clean.
The blemish of the bullet's scar was no more to be seen.

Tom stepped up, young and sprightly, saluted his friend Joe.
"Come on old pal, the bugle blows, its time for us to go"
Old Joe stood to attention, they marched out side by side.
Out to the waiting regiment. Those comrades who had died.

The barman watched Joe's corner, and said with some dismay,
"Old Joe seems awfully quiet. I think he's passed away."
But a miracle had happened, Joe found once more his feet
and rank and file with his soldier Pals,

marched off to the drummers beat.

Posted by: Jox Dec 15 03, 17:36

Tom,

I thought this great when I first saw it and that remains my opinion. This is a very worthy winner. Congratulations,

James.

Posted by: Don Dec 27 03, 11:32

This is the first I've seen
verse to gladden and dismay,
to believe hero last alive
of comrades of yesterday.

To commemorate alone
the highest price to pay,
but to assuage readers
and dispense a final say

we find ghosts take time
to drop and stop by
to toast men and memory
and induce living to cry.

Top shelf, Tom

Don