"Now, Soldiers, March Away" - a poem about Veterans' Day

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

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“Now, Soldiers, March Away”

 

Veterans’ Day in a Fading Town

 

 

                            Now, soldiers, march away:

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

 

-Henry V, III.iv.131-132

 

 

A shuffle now, rather than a march

Between curving ranks of folding chairs

Positioned by students on the old gym floor

While the high school band played the old hymns of war

 

A real lieutenant-colonel with a smooth-shaven head

Costumed in an old tree-suit that needed a wash

Mumbled into a broken microphone

Accepted his plaque, and ambled away

 

The children were nice, the veterans were old

Fewer children, fewer veterans every year

 

                            Now, soldiers, march away