Fontaine Notre-Dame
(In Memorium �?Ewart A. Mackintosh, 4th/5th Seaforth Highlanders,
Killed in Action, 21st Nov 1917)
In this village west of Cambrai
There is no trace of shell scarred lanes
To mark a soldier poet’s stand
Where a bullet found his brains.
There’s red brick and a dusty road �?BR>Just a scar where so many bled.
No rambling streets to flesh the bones
Of the verse of the valiant dead.
I’d thought to gain some insight
From the stones where they fought and fell.
But the silence of this bloody brick
Has a starker tale to tell.
No buildings cobbled over years.
No new built onto stone.
There was nothing left to build on.
Just blood and mud alone.
Just blood and mud and ashes
And the silence of the guns.
Obliteration’s monument
To the waste of Europe’s sons.
No stone to flesh the image
Of the echo of the man.
Just damned red brick accusing me
In Fontaine Notre-Dame.
Merlin
(Copyright, Gordon A. MacIntyre, 2004)
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