The Blow-
Job Soldiers

The blow-job soldiers wallow in snow fields,
Spreading love among the yellow lilies;
Hired to fight the beasts that had attacked
Out of the bog, to steal our civilization,
Making hay in the dark with our women,
Bayonetting our lonely children:
Ghosts of gods, fighting like gods,
Playing off against the conscience of the ages.

The blow-job soldiers are off again
Off to the fields again, to lie
Amongst the Columbine and Sweet William.

§   §   §

Like you, I always think on other wars
Nightmares fretted by dawn
A cottoning dawn that won't come.
The dawn that never came easily.

Thanks to you and me and these soldier bones,
There will always be a place
Where the blowflies will sing to us
Sing us to sleep,
Blowflies come in the night
To sing us to sleep.

I think on you still, and the dark trees
Graced by shells and fire --- and
The way god you made love
Trying to love me as man,
Trying to love me to death.

With cheers they took you away
With the poppies, love growing
In fields, the poppies blowing,
Taking you away.

--- L. L.. Winters