Posts Tagged graveyard
CONFEDERATE CEMETERY, ALTON, ILLINOIS
All of the names of the dead are Celtic
or English. Most of them died - in the prison
near the river -Â from typhoid rather than wounds.
Nobody set out to be cruel - farmers’
sons killing farmers’ sons. Their graveyard
above the bluffs was grassed, an obelisk built,
their names cast in bronze, bolted to limestone.Â
From the highway, there is no signage.
Eagles winter on the bluffs. America’s heart                             Â
is green and fecund: a confluence - Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi.
PARISH CHURCH, BURFORD
Hear them, silent on the leads,
watching their comrades,
the ensign, the corporal and the private
shot by firing squad
amongst the elms in the graveyard below.
Â
Under the leaves in the summer,
Cromwell’s New Model Army
was practising democracy,
selecting all ranks for exemplary death -
the only leveller.
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