Fifth of July

Cheers of
glory
start to fade

all
too very
soon

here lie
the brave
defenders

there
bold attackers
swoon

their ploys
forever
gone for
good

quiet seethes
the eerie
plain

where once
horse and hero
stood

and where now
all are
slain

and the good
that came
of it

becomes
part of
legerdemain

*

So rally strong
if
you so choose

and hail
the hallowed
day

the living
ever the
winners of war

’tis the dead
who always
lose

*

On the Fourth
sing we
of victory

of leaders
and the
led

on the Fifth
we look

at the
bloody field

and mourn
the guiltless
dead

*

So scale
the loss
of countless lives

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (A Novel), A Day in the Life (Novel), Expiations (Verse), and Farewell to Modernism (Political Economy Tract).