MY WORDS ON THE SOMME...

Dreaming The Trench

I saw claws on rats.

Vicious, digging into the 

Handless forearm

Of an unsuspecting sentry,

Whose body had disintegrated before me,

Like a dream, forgotten in the morning.

He had been lighting a cigarette

When the shell illuminated

The horror, the spectacular,

The deafening murder,

Beneath a Sergeant’s temporary, canvas awning.

I saw teeth on rats.

Vicious, digging into the

Clammy flesh

Of a bleeding forearm;

Bones splintered in mud before me,

Like wood shavings beneath my father’s plane.

I had been writing a lover’s letter

When the explosion rocked

The trench, the peace,

The rotting carnage,

Beneath the Belgian, drenching, persistent rain.

I saw eyes on rats.

Vicious, digging into the

Oozing hole

Of my bleeding throat;

Wire tangled tight around me,

Like thorns of a nettle’s shroud.

I was remembering kisses

When the machine gun racked

The advance, the foolishness,

The incomprehensible suicide,

Beneath this weakening, beckoning, darkening cloud…

Pete Ray