Edit - After the Battle

[dukealien]

After the Battle


Six slim, straight yellow shafts
quivered in deep greensward,
each a cloth-yard long and none
quite vertical—
as if massed bowmen had dispatched them
arcing down in piercing clouds.
These few having found no flesh
of horse or man, remained.

They swayed in twos
now stripped of fletching:
up to last Election Day
each pair upheld a poster for
some mayoral or school-board candidate
which boys who stuck them there
have now removed on penalty of law.

Better wars of votes than roses
or a hundred years, boys planting signs
than planting boys.

Six slim, straight yellow sticks
stood thrilling in bright greensward
nearly cloth-yard long and none
quite vertical— as if
master archers had released
their like in volleys over fields,
these few having found no flesh
of horse or man, and so remained.

They seemed to stand
in pairs, and lacked for feathers
having up to last Election Day
been spanned with advertising
posters for a mayoral or school board
candidate, which boys who stuck them there
have now removed on pain of law.

Better wars of votes than roses
or a hundred years, boys planting signs
than planting boys.

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This is was originally an ekphrastic poem.  To view with the associated image, please see here.