Edit - After the Battle

[dukealien]

edit 1;

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.

---

Didn't mean to be piggy by waiting for more than a couple of critiques:  thanks to all for the help and the reads.

@Knot particularly - it's still a little stuffy and antiquarian, and if I'd honored more of your suggestions it could be less so.  Trying to get a Middle Ages feel and probably going about it all wrong.

@ellajam - pointers to the photo removed.  Good to know the word-picture can be sufficient if I write it well enough (still trying).