60 LINCOLN COLCORD
Tumbled, broken, grotesque, in attitudes unhuman, in lumpish, swollen heaps, they lie,
Where death suddenly snatched them up and flung them down.
A strange, dark, silent scene ;
Here passed the awful charge three days ago ;
Here met the choking volley, shattered out and fell.
Three days and nights they have been lying here ; No help could reach them, cast between the battle
lines ; No help is needed now.
Slowly above their heads the conflict wore itself
away ; Calm settled on the shaking, riven air; The sharp cries of the wounded stopped one by one,
their groans grew fainter ; A few crawled off — the others lay as they had
fallen, under the sun and stars ; Then the third night, and peace at last, the quietness
restored.
3.
Listen ! — could one be living ? — come this way ;
Here where a score of bodies are drawn mysteriously
together, A turning face catches a gleam of starlight,
A hand moves, winnowing the air.
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