image by glenn buttkus
Stones Staring
Soldier’s statues line the perimeters
of parks, military bases, capitols, armories
and cemeteries,
their faces deeply chiseled in marble,
bronze and stone; captured, preserved,
petrified, frozen in time;
torrential tears long ago dried up,
lifted from the chaos of Mars,
transported whole to a pedestal,
rivers of blood camouflaged as bravery,
put on public exhibit, their brotherhood
only hinted at, death immortalized,
so that small boys can gawk,
flocks of angry birds can mock,
brass bands can rock, until
the transformation is ongoing;
their blackish features,
their perfect weaponry,
their concrete combat boots,
their baleful bayonets,
their bilious battle packs,
their sensuous stone bullets,
all turn into abstract art,
as bird shit, oxidation, & graffiti
soil their precious memory,
and anger their lingering spirits,
those ever silent specter battalions
who bivouac around statues.
Glenn Buttkus
February 2012
Listed as #6 over at dVerse Poets-Poetics
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12 comments:
hell yeah man...great choice...love hte chaos of mars and the allusion within that...rivers of blood camoflauged as bravery....the bird shit, oxidation and graffiti maring their memory...with you man...and our boys need to be honored for where the mad men send them...
tight write glenn...the rivers of blood camouflaged as bravery...and their sensuous stone bullets,
all turn into abstract art,
as bird shit, oxidation, & graffiti... dang! intense.. mine is about soldiers as well..
Excellent
This is a good piece--the contrast between the brave soldiers' statues and the bird shit and graffiti disrespecting their memories, the memorial to them and their wasted blood. The edginess gives it more power. Nice craftsmanship of word flow, rhyme, assonance, and consonance, with an occasional unusual word ;-)
Just now, moments after reading your piece on war's false pride, i read this from Mark. I read them out of the order in which i received them, but your salient thoughts set the frame for Mark's reflection. Jim
This is a strong write, Glenn. Your choice of subject, the way you wove in the god of war, and the banality of the description of the current state of the statues is effective and leaves me with a feeling of sadness at so much loss.
A great piece..great choice of sculpture.
Perfect transcription from stone to word. Such gorgeous images, almost sensual, and yet so apt. Superb.
Very nice share...but it makes me angry when we don't appreciate their blood and tears.
Moving and heart felt~
My share:
http://a-sweetlust.blogspot.com/2012/02/walking-around.html
Last lines are excellent here, driving home all the vivid, tactile imagery you set up in the main body of the poem. There's something eminently pathetic in a pigeon defaced statue--I prefer the plaques and names method, where each individual is accorded some individuality and dignity.
This is a great piece. Really vivid and heartfelt.
Superb stuff! Reading all these wonderful writes makes me realise I missed the point completely.
(I shall blame this on tiredness!)
Anna :o]
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