BROKEN - 1942

Ah! Sleep

The measure of me

Rest and find the beyond

Dive into sweet surrender

The old French song

The lights, the girls

Faraway, the guns

Closer in waking

Quiet you say

Sleep

The empty cartridge rolls to my feet

Mud splatters my

Uniform nothing

But rags like me

The boom - there is no French word!

Boom Boom Boom

Rest now you say

Twenty-five years gone by

I lay my head on your naked

Breast

And sleep

We have fireworks

You shake me awake

Something ripping the air

Sky turning over

Get under the blanket she says

Before dying

Rest she says

From beyond

We were never one

No baby

To tie us

Together

I leave her in the bed

She is

No more

The measure of me

Old French song

Singer on the stage

Gone all gone

Sleep.

© B.A. Calhoun, 2021